Structure of Le Chemin du retour

Le Chemin du retour is available in a Director's Cut version that is the uninterrupted full-length feature film. The instructional version of the film, however, divides the story into a preliminary episode, 22 story episodes, and an epilogue. Except for the Épisode préliminaire, which introduces students to the concept of learning French through film, each episode of Le Chemin du retour follows the same three-step format.

1. Students watch and participate in on-screen previewing activities.

Vous avez vu… Scenes from previous episodes are used to remind students about main events in the story that will help them understand the new episode.

Vous allez voir… Scenes previewing the upcoming episode set up the context for what students will see and hear in the episode.

Paroles et images This section, which occurs through Episode 11, introduces and practices a particular viewing strategy that students can apply to help them understand the language and events of the film.

2. Students view the complete episode.

3. Students watch and participate in on-screen postviewing activities.

Vous avez compris? Scenes from the episode are used in a variety of multiple-choice and true-false activities to help students verify their comprehension of the main ideas and the plot of the episode they’ve just viewed. Students who didn’t understand an important point as they viewed the episode will find they understand more after doing these activities.

Langue en contexte A transition back to the textbook, this section identifies for students the language functions and structures they will learn about in the textbook. Appropriate scenes from the film are subtitled in French and the targeted grammar and vocabulary are highlighted in yellow.

The movie, Le Chemin du retour, can also be used

• in a distance learning course.
• as an offering for adult or continuing education students.
• as the foundation for French courses at the high school level.
• as a supplement to beginning, intermediate, or advanced courses, at all levels of instruction.
• as a resource for informal learning.
• as training material for French-language classes in business and industry.
• as an important addition to library movie collections.