The Thirty-Third International FLAIRS Conference (FLAIRS-33) Automatic Grammar Checkers to the Rescue of French L2 Object Clitics Adel Jebali∗ Concordia University 1455, De Maisonneuve Blvd. W. Montreal, Quebec, Canada
[email protected] Abstract Ouellet examined the effects of integrating Antidote soft- ware in a French L1 high school in Quebec, Canada. She French grammar checkers, such as Antidote, Cordial and Le found that there is a positive correlation between the fre- Robert Correcteur, have gained a solid reputation concerning quency of use of the software and the average final scores their usefulness as helping tools for learners of French L1. obtained in a French course. Likewise, the study that was This usefulness is however demonstrated only in some con- texts where these automatic tools make learners more con- conducted by Mireault (2009) confirmed the results and scious of the metalinguistic knowledge. Yet, for the case of demonstrated the effectiveness of this grammar checker. Yet, French L2 learners, a lot has to be done to assert that these the usefulness of this tool is limited to correcting spelling automatic grammar checkers are useful in language class or mistakes only and syntax is its main weakness. However, as complementary materials. In this context, an experiment Bouffard and Jebali (2013) have shown that the errors of was conducted to investigate the use of grammar checkers for agreement of the past participle in French L2 are generally French L2 learners. An online corpus of French L2 texts (CE- well corrected by this grammar checker. Burston (2013) also FLE) written by learners of various proficiency levels were states that: analyzed using Antidote (version 10, 2019).