Didactique de la paraphrase : évaluation et développement de la compétence paraphrastique chez l'apprenant de français langue seconde

Abstract

This thesis aims to contribute to the improvement of the paraphrasing competence, or the ability to produce synonymous sentences, of advanced learners of French as a second language (L2). While possessing solid grammatical skills, advanced learners still produce lexical and stylistic errors and experience difficulties in reformulating their discourse. Paraphrasing competence is crucial for a language learner since it helps him to present an idea more clearly or circumvent a lexical gap, while allowing the learner to express the same meaning in multiple ways. The theoretical framework adopted is Meaning-Text lin-guistic theory (MTT), that attaches a great deal of importance to the description of lexical and paraphrastic relations and uses well-developped formal tools for the modeling of these relations. The thesis has two objectives. The first consists in elaborating a methodology for evalua-ting the paraphrasing competence of a speaker. The notion of paraphrasing competence is defined, and a test assessing the ability to paraphrase is created and administered to An-glophone learners of French and native speakers. Quantitative and qualitative criteria to establish four levels of paraphrasing competence – elementary, intermediate, advanced and superior - are identified. Characteristics of advanced learners’ paraphrasing competence are described. While pro-ducing all types of paraphrases, the L2 learner uses less lexico-syntactic paraphrasing operations, such as synonymic, antonymic or derivative substitutions. His paraphrasing means are less diverse than those of a native speaker. He also produces a high number of paraphrases with lexical and syntactic errors. The second objective of the thesis is to propose a didactic method of teaching paraphrase, taking into consideration the challenges that paraphrasing poses for L2 learners, identified by means of the paraphrasing test. Concepts of the Meaning-Text Theory are presented in a user-friendly format so that the theoretical linguistic knowledge becomes more accessible to L2 learners. A structured and explicit teaching approach is adopted, based on: (i) a selection of key concepts pertaining to the paraphrase and their definitions ; (ii) a selection of MTT paraphrasing rules and their explanation; (iii) paraphrasing exercices.The advocated pedagogical approach may serve as a reference tool for paraphrase didactics in French.