French Press in Teaching French as a Foreign Language

Abstract

The role and possibilities of using the French press in the methods of teaching French are considered. Leaving out of the brackets a whole layer of general educational literature on the French language, in one or another way including extracts from French newspapers and magazines, the author refers directly to the books in which attention is paid to the language of the French press. The most well-known Russian textbooks on the language of the French media are analyzed due to the fact that they are aimed at a Russian-speaking student and include, for example, materials on translation (from Russian into French and vice versa). The analysis allows to present a general typology of manuals devoted to the French press, depending on their tasks. First of all, there are manuals aimed at studying the specifics of the French printed word itself, its history and current state. It is argued that the greatest place is taken by the books, where the press is used as a material for acquisition and consolidation of practical skills, for active vocabulary learning by those who are studying French, and handbooks for abstracting in French (formation of three main types of paraphrase, called in French methodological traditions résumé , compte rendu , synthèse ), based on French periodicals and gaining the growing popularity in connection with the necessity of passing the international exams DELF / DALF.