Product Description
MOTIFS is a complete program for first-year French with a communicative, thematically based approach. The self-study grammar format of MOTIFS is open to both inductive and deductive teaching approaches allowing teachers to use the communicative activities first or the grammar activities, depending on their own preferred style.
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Just whay I needed for way lower than the price offered at my schools bookstore.
Rating: 5 / 5
The book came on time and in excellent shape, but it had only 1 CD instead of 2. And, much worse, it did not have the access key (the tab on which it was printed was ripped out of the book) which allows online access to the accompanying workbook. We had to pay $42 to buy one separately. This should have been indicated upfront. We would never have bought the book if we had known that it didn’t include all the features required for a typical course.
Rating: 1 / 5
At 64, I chose to learn French. I have a collection of CD French courses, and beginnng French textbooks. Finally, I enrolled for a class at our local university. Unfortunately Motifs is the textbook we are using, but fortunately I have an brilliant instructor. The authors of this text should have given up rather than try to update it to a 4th edition.
The book is divided into modules. Each module has several themes (too many with useless and dated topics). The end of each module has the structure for each theme. You wear out the book by constantly flipping back and forth between a theme and the structure section. The structure informaion is minimal. What is written is often confusing. The exercises are sometimes vague and can have multiple right answers. The book is slow to introduce useful conversational verbs. It is frustrating to try to speak when the only verb you know is the etre form. Module 4 finally gets around to introducing some useful verbs. The online Quia workbook is even more confusing. Often I resort to using one of my other textbooks to try to know what Motifs is trying to present.
If you are looking for a beginning French textbook, do your students a favor, and skip this one.
Rating: 1 / 5
The attempt to categorize verbs according to themes is commendable but there should be exceptions among irregular verbs like avoir, etre and aller. These verbs are too vital to postpone conjugations in later chapters. Also, it seems that the previous edition was more sufficient than this edition as there were some mistakes in the answer key.
Rating: 3 / 5
This is a excellent book to get if you wish to learn French. Fantastic list of vocabulary at the end of every chapter, the problem exercises are relevant and useful, and the tape that accompanies this book helps you know the material better. The organisation of it all could stand some improvement, but overall it is a useful and well-constructed language book.
Rating: 4 / 5