Je ne pense pas que cette phrase soit correcte.

Ouissam F.B2Kwiziq community member

Je ne pense pas que cette phrase soit correcte.

(La maison dans qui il habite est très vieille.) (Qui) est normalement pour les personnes ? Pourquoi ici est utilisée pour la maison ? Pourquoi Kwiziq affirme-t-il que cette phrase est correcte ?
Asked 2 weeks ago
CécileKwiziq Native French TeacherCorrect answer

As Alan has said, you were asked to choose the incorrect sentences, which is the one you suggest. The other three are correct.

Take a look again, and you will see what we mean.

Bonne Continuation !

Alan G.C1Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

I think you were asked to pick the sentence which is NOT correct.

Derek C.C1Kwiziq community member

Surely, highlighting incorrect French cannot be good for learners.

CécileKwiziq Native French Teacher

Interesting comment, Derek, but this method of finding the deliberate error is used widely in pedagogical circles as it brings variety to testing.

If you want additional learned opinions -

" No, it's not pedagogically wrong — in fact, it can be a highly effective technique. Here's why:

The case for it

Identifying the "odd one out" or spotting errors among correct forms engages a different and valuable cognitive process. Rather than simply producing language, the student must evaluate it. This requires a more in-depth, analytical examination of the grammatical rule in question. Linguists and educators sometimes refer to this as metalinguistic awareness — the ability to think critically about language, rather than just using it.

This mirrors real-world skills too: proofreading, editing, and noticing non-native speech all rely on exactly this kind of discrimination.

What the research suggests -

Error identification tasks have a long history in language pedagogy, appearing in approaches like:

Consciousness-raising tasks (popularised by researchers like Rod Ellis), which ask learners to notice and reflect on grammatical patterns rather than simply drill them. Contrastive analysis, where the correct and incorrect forms sharpen awareness of where errors typically arise.

Noticing hypothesis (Schmidt, 1990), which argues that learners acquire features of language more effectively when they consciously notice them, and spotting an error forces exactly that noticing."

Hope this helps!

 

 

Derek C.C1Kwiziq community member

Thank you, Cécile. That's very convincing.  Thank you for taking the trouble to give such a full reply.

I would just like to add, though, that the question arose from someone who had mistaken the way the 'incorrect French' was presented on the answer page.  I have made similar mistakes myself (with different kinds of questions) in reviewing Kwiziq answers.  

I think a better way should be found to show when 'incorrect French' is the correct answer.  Perhaps it could be shown in red on the answer page.

  

Ouissam F. asked:

Je ne pense pas que cette phrase soit correcte.

(La maison dans qui il habite est très vieille.) (Qui) est normalement pour les personnes ? Pourquoi ici est utilisée pour la maison ? Pourquoi Kwiziq affirme-t-il que cette phrase est correcte ?

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