INTRODUCTION: Learning French with Theme et Variations

The basic components of Theme et Variations are the textbook, the workbook, and the laboratory tapes

The workbook contains tally sheets on which you record your progress with the exercises in the text and

tapes; it also presents two new exercises-the Comprehension auditive and the Exercices ecrits. Here is a de-

scription of the several types of exercise, reading, and grammatical materials in the program, with suggestions

of ways to study them.

1. Conversations (printed in the text, recorded on the tapes, tally sheet in the workbook)

The conversations, or mini-dialogues, at the beginning of each lesson in the textbook will be used for

several kinds of practice in the classroom. They are recorded on the tapes, so you can practice them in the

laboratory either before or after they are presented in the classroom.* Whenever you practice a conversation

in the laboratory, place a checkmark in the appropriate tally sheet box ( ). For the first lesson, the taler

sheet appears on workbook page 19. English equivalents of the conversations are found in workbook Appen-

dix C, pages 173 208. These equivalents will be of use to some students as a prompter for learning and re-

view. //

2. Exercices oraux (printed in the text, selectively recorded on the tapes, tally sheet in the workbook)

Most of the oral exercises will be worked in class. One type of exercise requires structural manipula-

tions and has predictable responses. Another type consists of questions whose answers differ for each indi-

vidual. It will be to your advantage to go over the second type carefully and think of possible answers to

give your instructor or classmates.

You are expected to look up the meaning of new words occurring in the exercises, and to read the

grammar explanations at home before attending the class for which the exercises have been scheduled.

About 60% of the oral exercises are available on tape. Exercises recorded as they appear in the text are

marked with a tape symbol: 2.1 A. Exercises that have been modified for recording are marked with a

modified tape symbol: O 2.4 A. Whether or not these exercises are completed in class, they should always

be performed afterwards in the language laboratory.

Each item of the recorded exercises is recorded in the following manner:

Item Number -~ Question and/or Cue -~ (pause) ~ Correct Answer -~ (pause)

You give your answer during the first pause, then listen to the correct answer on the tape and compare it

with your own.

The workbook contains tally sheets to help you keep track of your performance on Exercices oraux.

The tally sheet for the first lesson (workbook page 19) begins like this:

1.1 B

This is a repetition exercise. The individual items of repetition exercises are not numbered on the tally sheet.

Only the exercise identification letter is given.

The next item on the tally sheet for the first lesson is as follows:

1.1 C 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

The consecutive numbers after the exercise identification letter correspond to the item numbers of the exer-

cise as they appear in the textbook.

For most exercises, you will not need to bring your textbook to the laboratory. (For a few exercises,

however, you will need to consult pictures from the text that are not duplicated in the workbook.) The ex-

ercises should always be performed without the aid of the printed text. Listen to the directions on the tape,

answer in the pause provided, listen to the answers recorded on the tape. If you have made an error, circle

or check the item number on your tally sheet. After the laboratory session, look no in the textbook the