Liaisons: An Introduction to French (World Languages)

LIAISONS is an innovative beginning-level French program firmly grounded in principles of communicative language teaching and research in second language acquisition. Components of the program are carefully linked together, showing students how they can make connections with their classmates, their instructor, their community, and the French-speaking world. With an engaging mystery film shot on location in Montreal, Quebec, and Paris, the program provides a rich array of communicative activities designed to stimulate interaction inside and outside the classroom. The underlying pedagogical framework in LIAISONS asks students to first discover new vocabulary and grammar through different mediums, then connect form and meaning through a set of confidence-building activities, and finally, actively create language.

Wynne Wong is Professor of French and Director of French Language Instruction at the Ohio State University. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on second language acquisition and Quebec cultural studies, and is responsible for graduate teaching associate training. In addition to publishing in different areas of second language acquisition, she is known for her research in French on Processing Instruction and structured input, and for her award-winning article (with B. VanPatten) "The Evidence is IN: Drills are OUT" (Foreign Language Annals, 2003), winner of the 2005 Stephen A. Freeman Award. Dedicated to building bridges between theory and practice, she is also the lead author of the textbook LIAISONS (Cengage, 2013, 2017) as well as INPUT ENHANCEMENT: FROM THEORY AND RESEARCH TO THE CLASSROOM (McGraw-Hill, 2005) and FOCUSING ON FORM IN LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION (with D. Simard, Routledge, 2015).

Stacey Weber-F�ve is Associate Professor of French at Iowa State University. She is a specialist of French cinema and has published books and articles on women's filmmaking and life writing and is currently researching French cinematic comedy and several French stars of comedy films. An award-winning teacher dedicated to "bridging the gap" between "language teachers" and "literature professors," she has also published and presented on the teaching of the French language, culture, literature, and film through integrated approaches and input-to-output processes at all levels of the foreign language curriculum, including advanced levels. She is co-author of the textbook LIAISONS and the recipient of the Nelson Brooks award (2015) given by ACTFL for excellence in the teaching of culture.

Edward Ousselin is Professor of French at Western Washington University. His main research interests are in French film and cultural studies. He is currently serving as editor in chief of THE FRENCH REVIEW.

Bill VanPatten is Professor of Second Language Studies at Michigan State University where he also directs the Spanish and French language programs. An international scholar with numerous awards for research, leadership, and teaching, Professor VanPatten is known not only for his work on theory and research in second language acquisition but also for the implications of second language research for language teaching.