Single French test: students benefiting from the digital dictionary?

The tool in question is the Usito digital dictionary, developed by the University of Sherbrooke and funded in particular by the Government of Quebec.

The user who doubts the spelling of a word only has to type it in the search bar. Usito then makes suggestions in real time, offers synonyms, related words and even conjugation tables for verbs. The tool is therefore faster and more comprehensive than a traditional dictionary.

Last fall, the Ministry of Education decreed that the digital dictionary could be used during the single French test, but only by students who had used it. regularly during the school year.

This is where the shoe pinches: students who were not familiar with Usito were therefore unable to take advantage of it last Thursday.

At the Center de services scolaire des Découvreurs, for example, nine groups of Secondary V were entitled to Usito. The others had to use the paper dictionary, apart from some students with learning difficulties.

The Center de services scolaire des Découvreurs allowed students to do their ministerial test under the same conditions as their learning and evaluations for the current year.explains spokesperson Marie-Ève ​​Malouin, who does not consider the situation unfair.

” There is no prejudice for the students, as long as they have the same conditions during the ministerial test that they had during the learning and evaluation situations during the year. »

In addition to the Discoverers, the Navigators, the Premiers-Seigneuries and Charlevoix have all allowed access to Usito for at least part of their groups of students, according to our information.

However, this is not the case at the Portneuf School Service Center. The use of the digital dictionary will only be permitted next year, when students will have had enough time to appropriate the tool in a learning contextindicates the director of educational services for young people, Jacques Moffette.

A two-speed system

A similar situation caused discontent in a school in the Center de services scolaire de la Capitale, where a student with attention deficit disorder did not have access to Usito, despite her parents’ requests.

In an exchange of emails, of which Radio-Canada obtained a copy, the school’s remedial teacher explains to the parents that their daughter’s difficulties do not justify granting her this permission.

Not having been familiarized with Usito beforehand, his situation does not meet the criteria of the ministry either, writes the remedial teacher. Adaptive measures must also have been tested over a long period of time to be allowed during a ministerial review.she recalls.

Worried, the father then wrote to the school principal, pointing out that even his daughter’s French teacher had sounded the alarm a few months earlier about her spelling difficulties.

In the same email, the father deplores the establishment of a two-speed system for the single French test, knowing that the Usito dictionary could be freely used in other schools in the province, including by many students without learning difficulties.

” There will now be schools and service centers that have the means to offer the tool to all students… and others. »

At the time of writing these lines, Monday at the end of the day, Radio-Canada had not obtained the desired explanations from the Center de services scolaire de la Capitale.

More efficient

Julien Bureau, professor of education sciences at Laval University, notes that the Usito tool is more efficient than a traditional dictionary.

At equal levels of knowledge, there is one that is really more practical: the digital tool is really versatilesays the professor.

According to Mr. Bureau, that the ministry authorizes different tools to pass the single French test is not problematic in itself. It is rather the impossibility of choosing the right tool for each student that challenges him.

” The problem here stems from the fact that certain people were prevented from having access to a tool which was considered to be authorized and acceptable for the examination. »

From an equity point of view, what would be interesting would be if the tools were chosen according to the preference of the person doing the examinationadds Professor Bureau.

A marked practice

Late Monday evening, by email, the Ministry of Education indicated that it had no data on the percentage of young people in fifth secondary who had access to the digital dictionary for the single French test last week.

Spokesperson Bryan St-Louis, however, says the practice is well marked. For example, educational institutions must not allow communication, Internet browsing, translation of texts or the creation, recording or consultation of datahe illustrates.

The digital dictionary, says the ministry, has already been used before the pandemic. Mr. St-Louis also maintains that this tool does not have the effect of favoring young people who have access to it.

According to a study conducted on the use of digital dictionaries following the June 2019 Secondary 5 French test, it appears that the use of the digital dictionary does not constitute an advantage for student success.