At this point I would like to include a personal observation about pleasure reading. I have been attempting, over the last few years, to improve my French, largely via pleasure reading, an attempt that has been successful. Mostly through input, I have increased my competence from "advanced beginner" to "high intermediate". I define the intermediate level in the following way: Requiring only some "downshifting" on the part of a native speaker to be able to converse easily, and being able to read most texts without a dictionary, without necessarily knowing every word. I can now read a great deal of French without a dictionary, and even derive real pleasure from it. Being a Monitor user and someone with an intrinsic interest in the structure of language, I occasionally look at grammar books (the ones that gave me so much trouble in high school). I have noticed, to my surprise, that the reading passages at the end of the elementary grammar book still give me trouble! I find them more difficult than "raw", unedited French, French written for native speakers. The reason "pedagogical" passages are more difficult for the intermediate is that they are packed full of subjunctives, conditionnel passé, futur anterieur, and all manner of infrequent vocabulary! in reading through these passages, I found them difficult to understand, and extremely frustrating: the topics were not even of mild interest, and I felt my affective filter going up, as I encountered word after word I did not know. My frustration was further aggravated by the fact that I realized that I was having trouble with a text designed for second year students!

What this experience suggests is that our intermediate students may find real texts, read for interest and pleasure, easier than our pedagogical materials. Moreover, if the above analysis is correct, it may be that free pleasure reading will result in more acquisition of the language.

For those who object on the grounds that reading in language courses should be restricted to the classics, to serious literature, I can only say that the ability to read "literature" will be facilitated by the development of a high level of competence in the second language. I personally agree with those who feel that a major goal of language instruction in the university is the study of literature written in the second language. I do not think, however, that we need to start out with serious literature immediately. Devoting several months to free reading of easier material might be the fastest way to bring students to the point

166