Une nouvelle approche du contenu thematique et situationnel d'une methode audio-visuelle: 'C'est le Printemps' (A New Approach to Thematic and Situational Content in an Audio-Visual Method: 'C'est le Printemps'). Acts of the Colloquium of the Swiss Interuniversity Commission for Applied Linguistics. CILA Bulletin, No. 26.

This study attempts to demonstrate that the choice of material on the thematic and situational level has a bearing on linguistic concepts. The critique is divided into three main sections dealing with: (1) themes and situations, or the world view of audio-visual methods; (2) themes and situations in a particular text, "C'est le printemps;" and (3) the importance of social and cultural parameters in the context of dialogues and other exercises. In audio-visual methods generally, themes and situations are found to be conventional, banal and lacking a well-defined sociological context. However, the text under discussion is seen to be an effort to make the themes and situations more realistic and contemporary, and to give them a well-defined social context. The manner in which the themes are treated in this text is considered to be of great importance: the themes are treated subjectively, that is the speaker (the individual learner) constitutes the determining factor in the communication. A variety of social-professional milieux are represented and the world view rests on phenomenological and sociological data. The consideration of these data constitutes one of the bases of the method and results in the convergence of linguistic, psycho-pedagogical, and methodological perspectives. An appendix includes three dialogues from "C'est le printemps," with commentary on each one. (AMH)