Serge Bibauw

Assistant Professor of French Language Teaching • University of Louvain

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I am an assistant professor of French language teaching at the University of Louvain (UCLouvain), in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. I am affiliated with the Institute for the Analysis of Change in Contemporary and Historical Societies (IACCHOS), co-directing the Cripedis research center, and co-affiliated with Girsef. I collaborate intensely with researchers at CENTALCECL and TeAMM research groups. I am also an associated professor at ITEC, an imec research group at KU Leuven. I was previously a professor and a French and English teacher trainer at Universidad Central del Ecuador.

I study conversational AI for language learning, or dialogue-based CALL, more precisely task-oriented chatbots (or dialogue systems) for language learning, at the intersection of task-based language teaching (TBLT), computer-assisted language learning and natural language processing (NLP). My research focuses on the instructional design and the evaluation of the effectiveness of conversational AI for L2 proficiency development, particularly L2 vocabulary size, spoken and written L2 fluency, and longitudinal assessment of L2 proficiency in various instructed SLA contexts.

recent and upcoming talks

Mar 22, 2025 Keynote at Prix de l’ABPF: IA et apprentissage du français : moins de buzz, plus d’humain (ULB, Brussels).
Feb 04, 2025 Keynote at Journée du français: Intelligence artificielle et langues : au-delà du blabla / Intelligence artificielle et activités intelligentes pour la classe de français ? with Michel Boiron (Eeckout Academy, KU Leuven Kulak, Kortrijk).
Nov 07, 2024 Keynote at the International Conference Shifting Boundaries: AI and Human Interactions Redefining Reality (SHAI): Looking back, looking forward: From dialogue-based CALL to LLM chatbots for language learning (Universitá di Napoli L’Orientale, Naples).
Oct 29, 2024 Keynote at Journée d’étude “Innovations pédagogiques dans l’enseignement du français dans un contexte plurilingue et interculturel”: Chomsky vs ChatGPT: Ce que révèlent les grands modèles de langage (LLM) sur l’apprentissage des langues (Hanoi University, Hanoi).

selected publications

  1. 2022-handbook.jpg
    Dialogue Systems for Language Learning: Chatbots and beyond
    Serge Bibauw, Thomas François, and Piet Desmet
    In The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Technology, 2022
  2. Discussing with a computer to practice a foreign language: Research synthesis and conceptual framework of dialogue-based CALL
    Serge Bibauw, Thomas François, and Piet Desmet
    Computer Assisted Language Learning, 32 (8), 2019
  3. LLT
    2022-ma-forest.png
    Dialogue Systems for Language Learning: a meta-analysis
    Serge Bibauw, Wim Van den Noortgate, Thomas François, and Piet Desmet
    Language Learning & Technology, 26 (1), 2022

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