Summary: | Can spellcheckers or grammar correctors, be they part of a word processor or stand-alone programs, help FSL students become more adept at correcting or editing the written texts they produce? Does computer-assisted mediation enable learners to correct their work efficiently and how does it compare with human mediation? What differentiates them? Texts written by anglophone students were corrected using both methods, i.e., on the one hand, by two teachers with 20 years experience and, on the other hand, using the specialized tools available with MSWord as well as two Canadian text correction programs, Le Correcteur 101 and Antidote. It turns out that the two methods are of very different natures ; computer-based correction can only give some positive results if the users have received appropriate training enabling them to actively and knowledgeably participate in the correcting process, and software programs cannot on their own be relied upon to correct efficiently texts written by intermediate level students.
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