Serge Bibauw

Assistant Professor of French Language Teaching • University of Louvain

Picture of Serge Bibauw

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

6 Nov 2025 Keynote at TSLL Conference 2025
Iowa State University, Ames
New Conversations, New Evidence: Revisiting the Impact of Bots for Language Learning in the LLM Era
21 Jul 2025 Workshop at Taller de capacitación ARES-UCE
Universidad Central del Ecuador, Quito
11 Jul 2025 Paper at XVIe Congrès mondial de la FIPF
Kursaal, Besançon
Test de vocabulaire auditif imagé en FLE : applications pour différents types d'apprenants
with Astrid Moulin
2 Jul 2025 Paper at 28e Colloque annuel de l'AFLS
UCLouvain Saint-Louis, Brussels
Test de vocabulaire auditif imagé en FLE : diagnostic et sensibilité pour divers profils d'apprenant

selected publications

  1. 2022-interactivity.svg
    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. LLT
    2022-ma-forest.svg
    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
  3. 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

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