A prolog-based tool for French grammar analysis

In this article we look at some traditional approaches to the use of computers in the teaching of modern languages. Pointing out their inadequacies, we describe a system based around the use of a natural language parser for teaching French, known as frog. The role of Artificial Intelligence techniques in general and the benefits of using the programming language Prolog in particular for this task are described. We then present a system which is based around the use of such general techniques to cope with free form French sentences but which can be generalised as the basis of future work for a language-independent teaching shell.