“FRANCOPHONIE” IN THE 1990S: PROBLEMS ANDOPPORTUNITIES.Dennis Ager. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, 1996.Pp. 215. $26.95 paper.

Abstract

A landscape of popular perceptions increasingly indifferent to French has sent teachers around the United States scurrying for new books that will draw students to the language they love. In many cases, the profession has fixed on Francophonie as a solution, offering, it seems, the practical, down-to-earth usefulness that the profession thinks students want and providing, at the same time, a neat link to popular and sometimes simple-minded notions of multiculturalism. Ager's new book, 6 years after his excellent Sociolinguistics and Contemporary French, demonstrates that Francophonie is far more problematic than many have thought. Less technical than the earlier book, this emphatically interdisciplinary work ought to be required reading for all prospective teachers of French.