Les erreurs syntaxiques des élèves du secondaire au Québec : analyse de corpus
This Master’s thesis develops an accurate portrait of the syntax errors made by high school students in Quebec by analyzing a text corpus from five groups from secondary 1 to secondary 5. The actual results in ministerial exams from secondary 5’s students show us that the students are having difficulty writing French. A deeper analysis helps us understand that improving the situation requires deeper knowledge of students’ syntax errors. Building on Boivin and Pinsonneault’s (2014) matrix, we analyzed texts written by students from secondary 1 to secondary 5. The data analysis shows that among the seven main categories of mistakes in the matrix, syntax is the one in which students make the most mistakes. A closer look at the six sub-categories within the syntax category reveals that punctuation is the most challenging factor for students at all levels. Mistakes related to determining the words’ grammatical category (homophones) came second.  Further analysis reveals that, for each code, the evolution of the amount of errors from one school year to another. The two main errors, based on the six syntax sub-categories, were those based on the use of the comma and those related to the confusion existing between a verb ending in “er” and an adjective or past participle ending in “é-e-s”.
Phrase Error Syntax Sentence High school Teaching of french Writing Text Punctuation