Better Reading French : A Reader and Guide to Improving Your Understanding of Written French »

Annie Hemminway is an author and teacher at the French Institute/Alliance Française.

A unique method of learning and sharpening your French language skills

For the advanced beginner or intermediate-level learner, reading offers you the most convenient way to practice and sharpen your French and monitor your progress.

Better Reading French brings you short passages that reflect French history and culture as well as contemporary issues and situations taken from magazines, the Internet, books, and newspapers.

Covering such topics as cuisine, love, music, travel, technology, politics, and history, each chapter features reading selections that become more challenging as the sections progress. Here you will find a feature on Alain Ducasse's favorite recipes, a letter from nineteenth-century actress Juliette Drouet to her lover Victor Hugo, descriptions of France's many museums, and more than fifty other selections to help you improve your reading speed and understanding.

Following each article is a set of exercises that help your comprehension and develop invaluable reading skills including:

• Skimming material for general meaning
• Scanning for details
• Using word formation, cognates, and context to determine meaning
• Understanding idioms and artistic expressions

An appendix provides suggestions for further reading.

Better Reading French will not only help you improve or revive your language skills, it also will open up the enjoyable and exciting world of reading in French.

Annie Hemminway is an author and teacher at the French Institute/Alliance Française.