Le Français de l'hôtellerie et de la restauration by H. Renner; U. Renner; G.

Tempesta
Review by: Marie-Christine Weidmann Koop
The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 79, No. 2 (Summer, 1995), pp. 287-288
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/329650 .
Accessed: 25/06/2014 08:50

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Wiley and National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations are collaborating with JSTOR to
digitize, preserve and extend access to The Modern Language Journal.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 62.122.73.177 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 08:50:06 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Reviews
The announced elaboration of a procedure
for errorand interlanguageanalysisis thuslim-
ited to the use of Martin'smodel and its predic-
tions forFrenchintonationas the norm against
which foreign language errors are judged and
the order of acquisition of various patterns
determined.The usefulnessand interestof the
book would be enhanced if the results of the
author's experimental study were used to
outline a comprehensiveacquisition model and
more effectiveteaching methods.
CHRISTIANE LAEUFER
TheOhioStateUniversity
que lestyle?
Qu'est-ce Ed. Georges Moline & Pierre
Cahne. Paris: Presses Universitairesde France,
1994. Pp. vi, 354. 168 FF paper.
The book consistsof a preface (by Larthomas),
preliminaryremarks (Martin), and 18 papers
presented at a symposiumunder the same title
at the Sorbonne in October 1991. Each paper
attemptsto define this broad topic and resolve
problems arisingfromliterary,stylistic,rhetori-
cal, semantic, semiological, and psychological
views. Many papers begin with a historical
perspective-treatises by Greek and Latin phi-
losophers and rhetoriciansthatshowtheirgrad-
ual evolution in the age of classicism,and the
birth of modern stylisticsin the 19th century.
They also address notional oppositions such as
thought/language, universality/singularity,
sociolect/idiolect,and form/content,and reaf-
firmthe basic concepts of deviation and choice
of the 1950s. Most of the papers also affirmstyl-
istics as a valid field of research, while admit-
ting that its tools often derive from other
disciplines.
The topics treated are extremelydiverse: the
role of creative imitation among the Latin
writers (Dangel); problems posed by modern
poetry,deemed stylistically unanalyzable(Combe,
Dominicy, Martin, Varga); the influence of
ancient rhetoric on the grandstyle(Fumaroli);
an analysis of irony as a stylistic "genre"
(Hamon); a semiological and/or semantic the-
oryof style(Adam, Moline); the role of memory
as a stylisticdevice (Weinrich); establishmentof
an intertext(Riffaterre);psychoanalyticviews
(Arrive); the failureof traditionalstylisticstyp-
ified by Lagarde and Michard (Maingueneau);
and the need to studyverbal interactionin spo-
This content downloaded from 62.122.73.177 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 08:50:06 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
287
ken language (Stempel) or to enlarge the hori-
zon to close rank with esthetics,fine arts, and
music (Combe).
The book progresses in a zigzag fashion
because the papers are simplyarranged alpha-
beticallybyauthors'names. Readers mightstart
with Molin&'s "Pour une theoriesemiologique du
style,"byfarthe mostextensiveand comprehen-
sive,beginningwitha discussionofpastiches, and
analyzing the of
interplay literaryanalyses,lin-
guistics, rhetoric, poetics, and pragmatics in
the formation of stylistic studies. This text
mightbe followedby "Du style enpodsie"in which
Dominicy proposes comparison of an "ordi-
a
nary narration" and a poetic text by the same
writerdealing with the same historical reality,
and Varga's "La questiondu styleet la rhitorique,"
which attempts to prove the impossibilityof
rhetorico-stylistic analysisof modern poetry.
There is littlemention of linguistsexcept for
Jakobson and Spitzer,both criticized for their
attempt to apply linguistics to esthetics, and
Bally, for having refused to deal with literary
language as "nonspontaneous." Modern struc-
tural as well as generative linguistics is dis-
missed as too narrow in scope or as having an
undesirableinfluence on stylistics because of its
tentation hegemonique (Dominicy, Rastier,Valen-
tin), or at best is considered a somewhatuseful
auxiliary instrument (Adam). There are only
passing mentionsof pragmaticsand no discus-
sion of the potential contributionby research
combining discourse analysis,word order, and
psycholinguistics.
This book, through its treatmentof varied
approaches to the notion of "style" and its
analyses,offersa wealth of informationregard-
ing the currentthoughtson stylistics.It should
be ofhighinterestto instructors and graduatestu-
dentsin Frenchliterature, especiallyto thosewho
workwithtextualanalysisand literarytheories.
PETER HAGIWARA
University
ofMichigan
RENNER, H., U. RENNER & G. TEMPESTA. Le
Franfaisde l'h6tellerie
et de la restauration.
Paris:
CLE International,1992. Pp. 128. $25.00, paper.
LeFranfaisdu tourisme. Paris: CLE International,
1993. Pp. 128. $25.00, paper.
These two titlesare part of a series devoted to
the study of French for the professions. Al-
288
though they are aimed at students who have
had only 150 contact hours in French,the level
of difficulty found in the readings makes them
more appropriate for the fifthsemesterof col-
lege and beyond. The stated objectives include
masteryof professional practices in a French
setting,improvementof language proficiency
in both receptiveand productiveskills,familiar-
ization withlanguage practices specific to pro-
fessional contexts, and preparation for the
exam of the Paris Chamber of Commerce and
Industry.
Both texts are accompanied by audiocas-
settes,but there is no instructor'smanual and
no workbook. Both titlesuse the same format.
Le Franfais de l'h6tellerie
et de la restaurationis
divided into five sections introducingvarious
transactionsrelating to hotels, cuisine, restau-
rants,bars, and wine; Le Franfaisdu tourisme is
divided into four sections relatingto means of
transportation,vacation, discovery of France,
and tourism.The materialsfound in each sec-
tion include dialogues thatare recorded on the
accompanying tapes; boxes containing idio-
matic phrases and structuresor vocabularylists
withdefinitions;some communicativeactivities
based mainly on questions, repetition exer-
cises, and role-playing;a fewexercises forprac-
tice in writing;and textswith additional infor-
mation on the topics.
Both books offerthe reader a wealthand vari-
etyof authenticdocuments of all kinds such as
ads, realia, forms,and excerptsfrommagazines
or literature.They also provide comprehensive
coverage of the topics introduced. In the sec-
tion on hotels, for example, the subdivisions
include contexts such as the hotel reception,
makingreservationsand takingtelephone mes-
sages, sending a telex, helping a customerfind
a room at another hotel, handling claims, hotel
description and regulations, billing, and em-
ploymentopportunities in the hotel industry.
Each subdivision includes vocabulary and
idiomatic phrases and a high cultural content
pertainingnot only to knowledge,but also atti-
tudes, values, and behavior patterns. These
books are veryattractivewithmanyrealia, pho-
tographs,and humorous drawings.
However,the approach is still traditional in
scope. First, there are few reading strategies
such as prereading and reading activities;the
postreading activities are limited to compre-
hension questions and one or two exercises for
speaking and writing. There are some good
activitiesin Le Franpaisdu tourisme, such as the
exercise asking students to find verbs expres-
This content downloaded from 62.122.73.177 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 08:50:06 AM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
TheModernLanguageJournal79 (1995)
sing various meanings in the texts on cruises
(chapter 1), or an articleforwhich studentsare
provided with subtitles that they are asked to
insert in the appropriate places (chapter 2).
More activities like these would improve the
approach. Second, there are no strategies to
introducevocabularyand no vocabularyinserts
in the margins.Also, writingactivitiesconsist
mainly of writingbusiness lettersor new dia-
logues and filling out forms.Listening strate-
gies are limited to the recording of dialogues
found in the audiocassettes and accompanied
by a set of comprehensionquestions; in LeFran-
faisde l'h6tellerie
etde la restauration
the recordings
correspond to the dialogues found in each sub-
division only,whereas in Le Franfaisdu tourisme
thereare additional dialogues witha transcript
at the end of the book. Speaking strategiesare
provided by a few communicative activities.
Althoughthe coverage of Frenchcultureis well
done in termsof content,thereis no attemptat
contrastiveanalysis;in addition, France is the
only referenceand there is verylittlemention
of other French-speakingcountries (Le Franfais
du tourisme devotes only three pages to French
culture in the world). Presentation of fran-
cophone cultures could have been accom-
plished in various ways. For example, in the
chapter on transportationfound in Le Francais
du tourisme, various ads refer to foreign places
such as Italy, Egypt, and London, and the
authors could have taken this opportunityto
introduceFrench-speakingareas beyondFrance.
These two books are very informative,com-
plete in termsof contentpertaining to France,
and attractive.They certainlyprovide the nec-
essary background to prepare studentsfor the
exam of the Paris Chamber of Commerce and
Industry.They could also be used in courses on
contemporaryFrance. However,instructorswill
need to design reading strategiesand prepare
additional activities for practice in speaking
and writing.
MARIE-CHRISTINE WEIDMANN KOOP
ofNorthTexas
University
SCHOFER, PETER & DONALD RICE. Autourde
3rd ed. Boston: Heinle, 1995. Pp. xii,
la litterature.
267. $35.25, paper.
The title of this excellent intermediateanthol-
ogy is a sign of the times.Literatureis no longer