PhD, Computational Linguistics
UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Brunato, D. and Dell'Orletta, F. and Venturi, G. and François, T. and Blache, P. (eds.) Proceedings of the CL4LC workshop 2016 , Association for Computational Linguistics.

François, T. et Bernhard, D. (eds.) Recent Advances in Automatic Readability Assessment and Text Simplification. In International Journal of Applied Linguistics (Special issue), 165:2, John Benjamins.

Müller, A. and François, T. Les avancées en rédactologie influencent-elles les guides de rédaction claire en Belgique francophone ? In Clerc, I. (Eds). Communication écrite état-citoyens : Défis numériques, perspectives rédactologiques (p. 177-192), Presses de l'Université Laval, Canada.

Bibauw, S., François, T. and , P. Desmet Dialogue systems for language learning: chatbots and beyond. In Ziegler, N. and González-Lloret, M. (Eds). The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Technology (p.121-134). Routledge.

Vandeghinste, V., Müller, A., François, T. and De Clerq, O. Easy Language in Belgium. In Lindholm, C. and Vanhatalo, U. (Eds). Bd. 8: Camilla Lindholm and Ulla Vanhatalo (eds.): Handbook of Easy Languages in Europe . Frank and Timme.

François, T. Le traitement automatique du langage pour l'évaluation automatique de la difficulté lexicale en FLE In Revue japonaise de didactique du français, 17(1-2): 129-144.

François, T. and Lefer, M.-A. Revisiting simplification in corpus-based translation studies: Insights from readability research In Meta: Translators' Journal, 67(1): 50-70.

Müller, A. and François, T. Pratiques de rédaction claire de rédacteurs fonctionnels en Belgique francophone. In Discourse and Writing/Rédactology, 32, 59-72.

Bibauw, S., Van den Noortgate, W., François, T., Desmet, P. Dialogue systems for language learning: a multilevel meta-analysis. In Language Learning and Technology Volume 26, Number 1, pp.1-24.

Javourey-Drevet, L., Dufau, S., François, T., Gala, N., Ginestià, J. et Ziegler. Simplification of Literary and Scientific Texts to Improve Reading Fluency and Comprehension in Beginning Readers of French. In Applied Psycholinguistics, Volume 43, Issue 2, pp.485-512.

Yancey, K., and Pintard, A. François, T. Investigating readability of French as a foreign language with deep learning and cognitive and pedagogical features. In Lingue e Linguaggio, 2/2021, pp. 229-258.

Zakhia Doueihi, J. and François, T. Concept-based Instruction for Applied L2 Acquisition: Literature Overview. In Pedagogical Linguistics (Online pre-print).

Müller, A., Clerc, I. and François, T. Plain language practices of professional writers in Quebec. In Discourse and Writing/Rédactology, 31, 49-74.

Sauvan, L. and Stolowy, N. and Aguilar, C. and François, T. and Gala, N. and Matonti, F. and Castet, E. and Calabrese, A. The inhibitory effect of word neighborhood size when reading with central field loss is modulated by word predictability and reading proficiency In Scientific Reports, 10: article n°21792.

Bibauw, S., François, T., Desmet, P. Discussing with a computer to practice a foreign language: research synthesis and conceptual framework of dialogue-based CALL. In Computer Assisted Language Learning 155, 1-51.

Stolowy, N., Calabrèse, A., Sauvan, L., Aguilar, C., François, T., Gala, N., Matonti, F., Castet, E. The influence of word frequency on word reading speed when individuals with macular diseases read text. In Vision Research 155, 1-10.

François, T., Fairon, C. Des technologies du langage au service du citoyen. In Synergies Pays germanophones 11, 107-119.

François, T., Müller, A., Degryse, B., Fairon, C. AMesure : une plateforme web d'assistance à la rédaction simple de textes administratifs. In Repères DoRiF 16, DoRiF Università, Roma novembre 2018.

Gala, N., François, T., Javourey-Drevet, D., Ziegler, J.C. La simplification de textes, une aide à l'apprentissage de la lecture. In Langue française 199 (3), pp. 123-131, Armand Colin.

Todirascu, A., François, T., Bernhard, D., Gala, N., Ligozat, A.-L., Khobzi, R. Chaînes de référence et lisibilité des textes : Le projet ALLuSIF In Langue française 195 (3), pp. 35-52, Armand Colin.

François, T. When readability meets computational linguistics: a new paradigm in readability. In Revue Française de Linguistique Appliquée, 20(2), 79-97.

François, T. et Bernhard, D. When text readability meets automatic text simplification. In François, T. et Bernhard, D. (eds.). Recent Advances in Automatic Readability Assessment and Text Simplification John Benjamins, pp. 89-96.

François, T. et Fairon, C. Les apports du TAL à la lisibilité du français langue étrangère. In Traitement Automatique des Langues (TAL), vol. 54(1): 171-202.

François T., La lisibilité computationnelle : un renouveau pour la lisibilité du français langue première et seconde ? In International Journal of Applied Linguistics (ITL), vol. 160, 75-99.

Cougnon L.-A. et François T., étudier l'écrit SMS. Un objectif du projet sms4science In Stähli, A. and Dûrscheid, C. and Béguelin, M.-J. (eds.). La communication par SMS en Suisse. Usages et variétés linguistiques (Linguistik Online) .

Cardon, R. and Bibal, A. and Wilkens, R. and Alfter, D. and Norré, M. and Müller, A. and Watrin, P. and François, T. Linguistic Corpus Annotation for Automatic Text Simplification Evaluation. In Proceedings of EMNLP2022 (accepted).

Wilkens, R., Alfter, D., Cardon, R., Gribomont, I., Bibal, A., Watrin, P., de Marneffe, M.-C. and François, T. CENTAL at TSAR-2022 Shared Task: How Does Context Impact BERT-Generated Substitutions for Lexical Simplification? In Proceedings of TSAR-2022 Shared Task (accepted).

Bibal, A. and Cardon, R. and Alfter, D. and Wilkens, R. and Wang, X. and François, T. and Watrin, P. L'Attention est-elle de l'Explication ? Une Introduction au Débat In Actes de la 29e Conférence sur le Traitement Automatique des Langues Naturelles (TALN2022), pages 447-449. June 27 - July 1.

Pirali, C. and Gala, N. and François, T. PADDLe: a Platform to Identify Complex Words for Learners of French as a Foreign Language (FFL). In Proceedings of the 2nd READI 2022 Workshop, pages 46-53, June 2022.

Wilkens, R. and Seibert, D. and Wang, X. and François, T. MWE for Essay Scoring English as a Foreign Language. In Proceedings of the 2nd READI 2022 Workshop, pages 62-69, June 2022.

Alfter, D. and Cardon, R. and François, T. A Dictionary-Based Study of Word Sense Difficulty. In Proceedings of the 2nd READI 2022 Workshop, pages 17-24, June 2022.

Wilkens, R. and Alfter, D. and Wang, X. and Pintard, A. and Tack, A. and Yancey, K. and François, T. FABRA: French Aggregator-Based Readability Assessment toolkit In Proceedings of LREC 2022, pages 1217-1233, June 2022.

Todirascu, A. and Wilkens, R. and Rolin, E. and François, T. and Bernhard, D. and Gala, N. HECTOR: A Hybrid TExt SimplifiCation TOol for Raw Texts in French In Proceedings of LREC 2022, pages 4620-4630, June 2022.

Norré, M. and Vandeghinste, V. and François, T. and Bouillon, P. Investigating the Medical Coverage of a Translation System into Pictographs for Patients with an Intellectual Disability In Proceedings of the 9th Workshop on Speech and Language Processing for Assistive Technologies. pages 44-49. May 27.

Bibal, A. and Cardon, R. and Alfter, D. and Wilkens, R. and Wang, X. and François, T. and Watrin, P. Is Attention Explanation? An Introduction to the Debate In Proceedings of the 60th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers), pages 3889-3900. May 22-27.

Rolin, E. and Langlois, Q. and Watrin, P. and François, T. FrenLyS: a tool for the automatic simplification of French general language texts In Proceedings of RANLP 2021: Poster, pages 1196-1205. September, 1-3.

Norré, M. and Vandeghinste, V. and Bouillon, P. and François, T. Extending a Text-to-Pictograph system to French and to Arasaac In Proceedings of RANLP 2021: Short Papers, pages 1050-1059. September, 1-3.

François, T. and Müller, A., and Rolin, E. and Norré, M. AMesure: a web platform to assist the clear writing of administrative texts In Proceedings of AACL-IJCNLP 2020 : System Demonstrations, pages 1-7. December, 4-7, 2020

Cierro, A. and Philippette, T. and François, T. and Watrin, P and Nahon, S. Eye-tracking for Sense of Immersion and Linguistic Complexity in the Skyrim Game: Issues and Perspectives In Symposium on Eye Tracking Research and Applications (ETRA '20 Short Papers), June 2-5, 2020, Stuttgart, Germany. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 5 pages.

Calabrese, A. and Sauvan, L. and Stolowy, N. and Aguilar, C. and François, T. and Gala, N. and Matonti, F. and Castet, E. Text Simplification to Help Individuals with Low Vision Read More Fluently In Proceedings of the 1st READI Workshop, May 11, Marseille, France.

Pintard, A. and François, T. Combining Expert Knowledge with Frequency Information to Infer CEFR Levels for Words In Proceedings of the 1st READI Workshop, May 11, Marseille, France.

Gala, N. and Tack, A. and Javourey-Drevet, L. and François, T. and Ziegler, J.C. Alector: A Parallel Corpus of Simplified French Texts with Alignments of Misreadings by Poor and Dyslexic Readers In Proceedings of LREC2020, May 13-15, Marseille, France.

Todirascu, A. and Cargill, M. and François, T. PolylexFLE : une base de données d'expressions polylexicales pour le FLE In Actes de TALN 2019, July 3-5, Toulouse, France.

Hmida, F. and Billami, M. and François, T. and Gala, N. Assisted Lexical Simplification for French Native Children with Reading Difficulties In Proceedings of the 1st workshop on Automatic Text Adaptation (ATA), November, 8, Tilburg, The Netherlands.

Billami, M. and François, T. and Gala, N. ReSyf: a French lexicon with ranked synonyms In Proceedings of COLING 2018, August, 20-26, Santa Fe, USA, pp.2570-2581.

Tack, A. and François, T. and Desmet, P. and Fairon, C. NT2Lex: A CEFR-Graded Lexical Resource for Dutch as a Foreign Language Linked to Open Dutch WordNet In Proceedings of the 13th Workshop on Innovative Use of NLP for Building Educational Applications (NAACL 2018).

Dürlich, L. and François, T. EFLLex: A Graded Lexical Resource for Learners of English as a Foreign Language In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2018). Miyazaki, Japan, 7-12 May.

Volodina, E., Borin, L., Pilán, I., François, T. et Tack, A. En andraspräksordlista med CEFR-niväer. In Svenskans beskrivning 35. Eds: Sköldberg, E., Andréasson, M., Adamsson Eryd, H., Lindahl, F., Lindström, S., Prentice, J. and Sandberg, M. Gothenburg. pp. 369-382.

Tack, A. and François, T. and Roekhaut, S. and Fairon, C. Human and Automated CEFR-based Grading of Short Answers In Proceedings of the 12th Workshop on Innovative Use of NLP for Building Educational Applications (EMNLP 2017).

Volodina, E. and Pilán, I. and Llozhi, L. and Degryse, B. and François, T. SweLLex: second language learners' productive vocabulary In Proceedings of the joint 5th NLP4CALL and 1st NLP4LA workshops (SLTC 2016), November 16, Umea, Sweden.

Todirascu, A. and François, T. and Bernhard, D. and Gala, N. and Ligozat, A.-L. Are Cohesive Features Relevant for Text Readability Evaluation? In Proceedings of COLING 2016, December 13-16, Osaka, Japan.

Lemaire, N., and François, T. and Debongnie, J.-C. and De Meyere, D. and Fauquert, B. and Klein, T. and Fairon, T. and Van Campenhoudt, M. L'enrichissement terminologique d'usage du projet iMediate : une collaboration tripartite terminologie/TAL/sciences de la santé In Actes du Second Congrès international du Réseau de Lexicographie (5-7 octobre 2015), Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. Ibéroamericana.

Mûller, A. and François, T. and Roekhaut, S. and Fairon, C. Classification automatique de dictées selon leur niveau de difficulté de compréhension et orthographique In Actes de la 23e Conférence sur le Traitement Automatique des Langues Naturelles (TALN 2016). Paris, France, 4-8 July.

Tack, A. and François, T. and Ligozat, A.-L., and Fairon, C. Modèles adaptatifs pour prédire automatiquement la compétence lexicale d'un apprenant de français langue étrangère In Actes de la 23e Conférence sur le Traitement Automatique des Langues Naturelles (TALN 2016). Paris, France, 4-8 July.
Award: Best Paper TALN 2016

François, T. and Billami, M.B., and Gala, N. and Bernhard, D. Bleu, contusion, ecchymose : tri automatique de synonymes en fonction de leur difficulté de lecture et compréhension In Actes de la 23e Conférence sur le Traitement Automatique des Langues Naturelles (TALN 2016). Paris, France, 4-8 July.

François, T. and Volodina, E. and Pilán, I. and Tack, A. SVALex: a CEFR-graded lexical resource for Swedish foreign and second language learners In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2016). Portoroz, Slovenia, 23-28 May, pp. 213-219.

Brognaux, S. and François, T. and Saerens, M. Combining Manual and Automatic Prosodic Annotation for Expressive Speech Synthesis In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2016). Portoroz, Slovenia, 23-28 May, pp. 3872-3879.

Tack, A. and François, T. and Ligozat, A.-L., and Fairon, C. Evaluating Lexical Simplification and Vocabulary Knowledge for Learners of French: Possibilities of Using the FLELex Resource In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2016). Portoroz, Slovenia, 23-28 May, pp. 230-236.

De Meyere, D. and Klein, T. and François, T. and Debongnie, J.-C. and Radulescu, C. and Mbengo, N. and Ouro Kouro, M. and Coppieters't Wallant, Y. and Fairon, C. Automatic annotation of medical reports using SNOMED-CT: a flexible approach based on medical knowledge databases In Proceedings of the 7th Language Technology Conference (LTC2015).

Bibauw, S. and François, T. and Desmet, P. Dialogue-based CALL: an overview of existing research In F. Helm, L. Bradley, M. Guarda, and S. Thouësny (Eds), Critical CALL ? Proceedings of the 2015 EUROCALL Conference, Padova, Italy (pp. 1-8).

Gala, N. and Billami, M. B. and François, T. and Bernhard, D. Graded lexicons: new resources for educational purposes and much more. In F. Helm, L. Bradley, M. Guarda, and S. Thouësny (Eds), Critical CALL ? Proceedings of the 2015 EUROCALL Conference, Padova, Italy (pp. 1-6).

François, T. An analysis of a French as a Foreign language corpus for readability assessment In Proceedings of the 3rd workshop on NLP for Computer-assisted Language Learning, NEALT Proceedings Series 22 / Linköping Electronic Conference Porceedings 107: 13-32.

François, T. et Brouwers, L. et Naets, H. et Fairon, C. AMesure: une formule de lisibilité pour les textes administratifs In Actes de la 21e Conférence sur le Traitement automatique des Langues Naturelles (TALN 2014), Marseille, 467-472.

Gala, N. et François, T. et Bernhard, D. et Fairon, C. Un modèle pour prédire la complexité lexicale et graduer les mots In Actes de la 21e Conférence sur le Traitement automatique des Langues Naturelles (TALN 2014), Marseille, 91-102.

Brouwers, L. et Bernhard, D. et Ligozat, A.-L. et François, T. Syntactic Sentence Simplification for French In the 3rd International Workshop on Predicting and Improving Text Readability for Target Reader Populations (PITR 2014). Gothenburg, Sweden, 27 April.

François, T., Gala, N., Watrin, P. et Fairon, C. FLELex: a graded lexical resource for French foreign learners In the 9th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2014). Reykjavik, Iceland, 26-31 May.

Pho, V.-M., André, T., Ligozat, A.L., Grau, B., Illouz, G. et François, T. Multiple Choice Question Corpus Analysis for Distractor Characterization In the 9th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2014). Reykjavik, Iceland, 26-31 May.

Gala, N., François, T. et Fairon, C. Towards a French lexicon with difficulty measures: NLP helping to bridge the gap between traditional dictionaries and specialized lexicons. In Proceedings of Electronic lexicography in the 21st century: thinking outside the paper (eLEX-2013). Tallinn, Estonia, octobre 2013.

Todirascu, A. et François, T. et Gala, N. et Fairon, C. et Ligozat, A.-L. et Bernhard, D. Coherence and Cohesion for the Assessment of Text Readability In Proceedings of 10th International Workshop on Natural Language Processing and Cognitive Science (NLPCS 2013), 11-19.

Boubel, N. et François, T. et Naets, H. Automatic extraction of contextual valence shifters In Proceedings of Recent Advances in Natural Language Processing (RANLP 2013).

François, T. et Fairon, C. An ?AI readability? formula for French as a foreign language In Proceedings of the 2012 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP 2012), Jeju, 466-477.

François, T. et Miltsakaki, E. Do NLP and machine learning improve traditional readability formulas? In Proceedings of the First Workshop on Predicting and improving text readability for target reader populations (PITR2012), Montréal, June 7, 49-57.

Brouwers, L. et Bernhard, D. et Ligozat, A.-L. et François, T. Simplification syntaxique de phrases pour le français In Actes de la conférence conjointe JEP-TALN-RECITAL 2012, volume 2: TALN, pages 211?224, Montpellier.

François T. et Watrin, P. On the Contribution of MWE-based Features to a Readability Formula for French as a Foreign Language In Proceedings of Recent Advances in Natural Language Processing (RANLP 2011), Hissar, September 14-16, 441-447.

Watrin, P. et François T. An N-gram frequency database reference to handle MWE extraction in NLP applications In Proceedings of the 2011 Workshop on MultiWord Expressions: from Parsing and Generation to the Real World (ACL Workshop), Portland, Oregon, June 23, 2011, 83-91.

François T. et Watrin, P., Quel apport des unités polylexicales dans une formule de lisibilité pour le français langue étrangère ? In Actes de la 18e Conférence sur le Traitement automatique des Langues Naturelles (TALN 2011), Montpellier, vol. 2, 15-20.

Goldman, J.-P. François T., Roekhaut, S. et Simon, A.C. étude statistique de la durée pausale dans différents styles de parole In Actes des 28èmes journées d'étude sur la parole (JEP), Mons, Belgique, 25-28 mai 2010, 161-164.

Cougnon L.-A. et François T., Quelques contributions des statistiques à l'analyse sociolinguistique d'un corpus de SMS In Proceedings of 10th International Conference JADT, 9-11 juin 2010, Sapienza University of Rome, volume 1, 619-630.

François T., Modèles statistiques pour l'estimation automatique de la difficulté de textes de FLE, In Rencontre des Etudiants Chercheurs en Informatique pour le Traitement Automatique des Langues (RECITAL 2009), Senlis, 24-26/06/2009.

François T., Combining a Statistical Language Model with Logistic Regression to Predict the Lexical and Syntactic Difficulty of Texts for FFL, In Proceedings of the EACL 2009 Student Research Workshop, Athens, 2 April 2009, 19-27 (corrected version).
Original version.

Courtrai, June 9, 2022, Invited talk at the Linguistic KUL Day
Lecture: "How can Natural Language Processing help us do research in applied linguistics? An illustration through the automatic measure of language complexity"

Paris, April 22, 2022, Invited talk at the 57th ALTE Conference
Lecture: "Automated essay scoring: where do you stand and where are we going?"
Recording available here

Paris, April 21, 2022, Invited workshop at the 57th ALTE Conference
Lecture: "Introducing CEFRLex and its perspectives for automated scoring"

Louvain-la-Neuve, December 7, 2021, Invited presentation at the GR4L2 Workshop
Lecture: "The CEFRLex project: multilingual CEFR-graded lexical resources for foreign language learning, teaching and research"

Kyoto, October 23, 2021, Invited presentation at the SJDF Conference
Lecture: "Le TAL pour l'évaluation automatique de la difficulté lexicale en FLE"

Taipei, October 14-18, 2019, Invited Professor to the Fu-Jen University (Taipei, Taiwan)
Lectures: Various topics (Introduction to CALL, the CEFRLex project, Introduction to Corpus Linguistics and Sketch Engine, Dialogue systems for L2 learning, Introduction to Python (total: 16h)

Turku, September 30, 2019, Invited presentation at the 8th NLP4CALL workshop
Lecture: "Assessing language complexity for L2 readers with NLP techniques and corpora"

Louvain-la-Neuve, August 24, 2019, Invited presentation at the Workshop Cognitive Linguistic Applications to Second Language Teaching: From Theory to Practice
Lecture: "Conducting and interpreting inferential statistics for interventional studies"

Paris, July 19, 2019, Invited presentation at the EALTA Open Colloquium 2019
Lecture: "AI for automated text analysis in L2 using the CEFR scale"

Paris, July 18, 2019, Invited presentation at the EALTA Summer School 2019
Lecture: "The assessment of proficiency levels with automated text analysis tools"

Paris, July 1, 2019, Invited presentation at the HackaTAL 2019 (TALN 2019), University of Toulouse 1 Capitole
Lecture: "AMesure : une plateforme en ligne pour aider à la rédaction simple de textes administratifs"

Taipei, November 23, 2018, Invited workshop in the International joint conference 2018 of the APFT on "Les nouvelles stratégies de l'enseignement du français : enjeux et innovations", Tamkang University
Lecture: "Le traitement automatique du langage au service de l'apprentissage des langues étrangères"

Tilburg, November 8, 2018, Invited lecture to 1st workshop on Automatic Text Adaptation (ATA), University of Tilburg
Lecture: "The interface between readability and automatic text simplification: identifying difficulties to support simple writing"

Aberdeen, August, 29, 2016, Invited lecture to One-Day NLP/NLG Workshop, University of Aberdeen
Lecture: "Various NLP approaches to assess lexical difficulty for reading"

Mainz, August, 27, 2015, Invited lecture to the DRV-Sommerschule 2015 (August 24-28, 2015), Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Lecture: "Informing linguistics with statistics: the case of the SMS corpora"

Aberdeen, July 23, 2015, Invited lecture to the NLG Summer School 2015 (July 20-24, 2015), University of Aberdeen
Lecture: "Readability: a one-hundred-year-old field still in his teens"

Grenoble, June 04, 2012, Invited talk as recipient of the Thesis Award ATALA 2012, at Conference JEP-TALN-RECITAL 2012, Université Stendhal.
Talk: "Les apports du traitement automatique du langage à la lisibilité du français langue étrangère?

Tokyo, October 27, 2022. Presentation at Aoyama Gakuin University Research Group Seminar
Lecture: "L'évaluation de la difficulté des textes de FLE à l'ère de l'intelligence artificielle"

Fukuoka, October 24, 2022. Presentation at Seinan Gakuin University Seminar
Lecture: "Des méthodes automatisées pour évaluer la difficulté des textes de FLE"

Lille, August 29 - Sept. 01, Presentation at the ESCOP Conference
Authors: Ludivine Javourey-Drevet, Stéphane Dufau, Thomas François, Nuria Gala, Jacques Ginestié, Johannes Ziegler
Lecture: "Improving fluency and reading comprehension for beginning readers of French?"

Louvain-la-Neuve, March 17, 2022, Presentation at the PLIN Seminar Series
Authors: Thomas François and Marie-Aude Lefer
Lecture: "Revisiting simplification in corpus-based translation studies: Insights from readability research"

Louvain-la-Neuve, December 7, 2021, Presentation at the GR4L2 Workshop
Authors: Thomas François and Patricia Kerrers and Damien De Meyere and Ferran Suñer Muñoz
Lecture: "DAFLex: a CEFR-graded lexical resource for German as a foreign language"

Louvain-la-Neuve, December 7, 2021, Presentation at the GR4L2 Workshop
Authors: Amalia Todirascu, Thomas François and Marion Cargill
Lecture: "Mapping Multi-word expressions to CEFR for French as a foreign language: PolylexFLE"

Louvain-la-Neuve, November 9, 2021, Cental's Seminar Series
Lecture: "Le TAL pour l'évaluation automatique de la difficulté de lecture en FLE"

Zoom September 24, 2021, ELRC Technical Workshop : Simplify Language - Capture Audience
Lecture: "Natural language processing can support clear writing: the example of the AMesure platform"

Bertinoro (Italy), September 9-11, 2021, Using Corpora in Contrastive and Translation Studies
Authors: Thomas François and Marie-Aude Lefer
Lecture: "CBTS meets readability research: New methodological insights for the study of the simplification hypothesis"

Groningen, August 18, 2021, AILA Conference 2021
Authors: Serge Bibauw, Louis Escouflaire, Thomas François and Piet Desmet
Lecture: "Automatizing L2 fluency measurement: validity and developmental sensitivity of temporal fluency metrics variations"

Ghent, July 9, 2021, CLIN Conference 2021
Authors: Magali Norré, Vincent Vandeghinste, Pierrette Bouillon and Thomas François
Lecture: "Experiments for the adaptation of Text2Picto to French"

Louvain-la-Neuve, May 7, 2021, PLIN Linguistic Day 2021
Authors: Pauline Parmentier, Aline Colau, and Thomas François
Lecture: "Would being more natural help to make an oral presentation more efficient?"

Louvain-la-Neuve, May 7, 2021, PLIN Linguistic Day 2021
Authors: Adeline Müller, Isabelle Clerc and Thomas François
Lecture: "How do professional writers use plain language in their everyday job? A survey of 55 professional writers in Quebec"

Louvain-la-Neuve, May 7, 2021, PLIN Linguistic Day 2021
Authors: Tran Hanh Trang Pham and Thomas François
Lecture: "Genre model of French-speaking tourist websites"

Inspé, Marseille, March 30-31, 2021, Colloque International SFERE-Provence
Authors: Ludivine Javourey-Drevet, Núria Gala, Thomas François, Stéphane Dufau, Jacques Ginestié, and Johannes Ziegler
Lecture: "Text simplification of literary and scientific texts to improve reading fluency and comprehension in children learning to read in French"

Cuenca, November 26, 2019, III Conferencia Internacional de Investigación Educativa ASEFIE 2019
Authors: Serge Bibauw, Louis Escouflaire, Thomas François and Piet Desmet
Lecture: "Desarrollo de la fluidez oral en lengua extranjera: experimento de medición semiautomática de los efectos de aprendizaje"

Bruxelles, November 4, 2019, Université libre de Bruxelles, PhD AI Seminars At BeCentral
Lecture: "AI readability formulas: how AI helped revived a one-hundred-year-old field"

Louvain-la-Neuve, August 29, 2019, EUROCALL 2019
Authors: Anaïs Tack, Thomas François, Piet Desmet and Cédrick Fairon
Communication: The prediction of lexical competence in foreign language reading: A systematic synthesis

Louvain-la-Neuve, August 29, 2019, EUROCALL 2019
Authors: Núria Gala, Catherine David, Anaïs Tack and Thomas François
Communication: Assessing vocabulary knowledge to learners of French as a foreign language: accounting for L1 variability to go beyond the CEFR scale

Louvain-la-Neuve, August 29, 2019, EUROCALL 2019
Authors: Serge Bibauw, Thomas François and Piet Desmet
Communication: Interactivity in dialogue-based CALL practice: effects on learners' perception and production

Louvain-la-Neuve, July 9 and July 11, 2019, Summer school on Text Mining with Python
Trainers: Thomas François, Hubert Naets, and Patrick Watrin
Modules: "L'annotation linguistique: tagging et entités nommées" (2h) and "Introduction à la classifciation de textes" (6h)

Madrid, July 8, 2019, IAMCR 2019 (School of Communication, UCM)
Authors: Andrea Catellani, Patrick Watrin, Thomas François, Julie Matagne and Pierre Fastrez
Communication : "Analyzing theme penetration from specialized to non-specialized discourses with NLP: the case of the IPCC Special Report Global Warming of 1.5°C"

Leuven, July 2, 2019, Vocab@Leuven (KU Leuven, Leuven)
Authors: Anaïs Tack, Thomas François, Piet Desmet and Cédrick Fairon
Communication : "The role of cognate vocabulary in CEFR-based word-level readability assessment"

Leuven, July 1, 2019, Vocab@Leuven (KU Leuven, Leuven)
Authors: Serge Bibauw, Thomas François and Piet Desmet
Communication : "Effects of interactivity of written practice on incidental vocabulary acquisition"

Brussels, June 13, 2019, CBL Day (KU Leuven, Brussels Campus)
Authors: Thomas François, Adeline Müller, Gaëtan Ansotte, Romain Pattyn, Cédrick Fairon
Communication : "AMesure: une plateforme en ligne pour aider à la rédaction simple de textes administratifs" (to come)

Brussels, May 8, 2019, SeSLa Seminar (Université Saint-Louis)
Communication : "Usage des corpus au service de l'apprentissage des langues étrangères : le projet CEFRLex"

Bruges, July, 6, 2018, Conference CALL 2018
Authors: Thomas François, Núria Gala, Elena Volodina, AnaÏs Tack, Ildikó Pilán, Luise Dürlich, Patrick Watrin, Piet Desmet and Cédrick Fairon
Communication : "The CEFRLex project: multilingual CEFRLex graded lexical resources for foreign language learning, teaching and research"

Bruges, July, 5, 2018, Conference CALL 2018
Authors: Serge Bibauw, Thomas François and Piet Desmet
Communication : "Insights from a multilevel meta-analysis on the effectiveness of dialogue-based CALL"

Bruges, July, 4, 2018, Conference CALL 2018
Authors: AnaÏs Tack, Thomas François, Piet Desmet and Cédrick Fairon
Communication : "Making Sense of L2 Lexical Complexity with NT2Lex, a CEFR-graded Lexicon Linked to Open Dutch WordNet"

Louvain-la-Neuve, May 29, 2018, Formation SMCS (Text Mining)
Communication : "Pré-traitements des données : quelles informations extraire ?"

Louvain-la-Neuve, May 18, 2018, PLIN Day 2018
Auteurs : Thomas François et Barbara De Cock
Communication : "ELELex : a CEFR-graded lexical resource for Spanish as a foreign language"

Fukuoka, May 16, 2018, Seinan Gakuin University
Communication : "Le traitement automatique du langage au service de l'apprentissage des langues étrangères : 10 ans de recherches au Cental"

Fukuoka, May 15, 2018, Fukuoka University
Communication : "The CEFRLex project: multilingual CEFR-graded lexical resources"

Besançon, April 27, 2018, (Seminar of the Lucien Tesnière team).
Communication : "Introduction aux approches automatisées pour évaluer la difficulté du langage"

Aix-en-Provence, December 15, 2017, LPL (Seminar of the LPL).
Communication : "Approches automatiques pour l'évaluation de la difficulté du langage" (Podcast de la conférence)

Paris, March 28, 2017, INALCO (Seminar of the ERTIM team).
Communication : "Des formules de lisibilité à l'analyse de la difficulté"

Leuven, February 10, 2017, Computational Linguistics in the Netherlands 27 (CLIN 2017).
Auteurs : AnaÏs Tack, Thomas François, Piet Desmet and Cédrick Fairon
Communication : "Introducing NT2Lex: A Machine-readable CEFR-graded Lexical Resource for Dutch as a Foreign Language"

Darmstadt, September 15, 2016, Technische Universität Darmstadt (Seminar).
Communication : "NLP methods for assessing lexical difficulty"

Marseille, June 26, 2016, Aix Marseille University (Seminaire du LIF).
Communication : "Méthodes TAL pour la prédiction automatisée de la difficulté lexicale"

New-York, June 15-18, 2016, ICSB World Conference
Auteurs : Benoit Gailly, Mahamadou Biga-Diambeidou, Christian Gnekpe, Thomas François, Patrick Watrin, and Françoise de Viron
Communication : "Using Natural Language Processing in Entrepreneurship Research: Exploring the Perceived Benefits of Business Incubation"

East Lansing, May 10-14, 2016, Presentation at the CALICO Conference 2016, Michigan State University,
Auteurs : Serge Bibauw, Thomas François, Piet Desmet
Communication : "Instructional design and natural language processing in dialogue-based CALL"

Fukuoka, January 13, 2016, Fukuoka University
Communication : "La prédiction automatisée de la difficulté lexicale en FLE"

Lille, December 10, 2015, Lille 3 University (invited lecture)
Communication : "Apports du TAL à l'ALAO: un exemple concret avec FLELex"

Santiago de Compostela, October 5-7, 2015, 2nd International Congres RELEX (RELEX2015)
Auteurs : Nathalie Lemaire, Thomas François, Jean-Claude Debongnie, Damien De Meyere, Benjamin Fauquert, Thierry Klein, Cédrick Fairon, Marc Van Campenhoudt
Communication : "L'enrichissement terminologique d'usage du projet iMediate: une collaboration tripartite terminologie/TALN/sciences de la santé."

Louvain-la-Neuve, November 6, 2015, Université catholique de Louvain (Séminaire du CENTAL)
Communication : "La prédiction automatisée de la difficulté lexicale par la combinaison de ressources et de méthodes d'apprentissage automatisé."

Herstmonceux castle, UK, August 13, 2015, Presentation at the ENEL WG3 Meeting
Auteurs : Elena Volodina, Ildikó Pilán, Thomas François
Communication : "Introducing SVALex: a corpus-based lexical resource for second language learning"

Boulder, May 25, 2015, Presentation at the CALICO Conference 2015, University of Colorado,
Auteurs : Serge Bibauw, Thomas François, Piet Desmet
Communication : "Conversational agents for language learning: state of the art and avenues for research on task-based agents"

Gothenburg, February 5, 2015, University of Gothenburg
Communication : "Dmesure and FLELex: two approaches of textual complexity for French as a foreign language"

Fukuoka, January 7, 2015, Fukuoka University
Communication : "Dmesure et FLELex: deux approches de la difficulté textuelle pour le français langue étrangère"

Leuven, December, 17, 2014, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL) (to come)
Communication : "Assessing the lexical complexity in French: FLELex and ReSyF"

Tûbingen, July, 11, 2014, Universität Tûbingen (Seminar at SFS).
Communication : "Challenges for specializing readability formulas: a case study for administrative texts"

Marseille, March 25, 2014, Aix Marseille University (Seminaire du LIF).
Communication : "La lisibilité computationnelle : limites et défis"

Paris, January 14, 2014, Maison de la Recherche, Université Paris-Sorbonne (journée d'étude).
Communication (in collaboration with Boubel, N.) : "étude linguistique des phénomènes de modification de polarité dans le domaine de la fouille d'opinion."

Louvain-la-Neuve, November 15, 2013, Université catholique de Louvain (Séminaire du CORE).
Communication : "La lisibilité computationnelle : les apports du TAL et de l'apprentissage automatisé à la lisibilité"

Louvain-la-Neuve, October 4, 2013, Université catholique de Louvain (Séminaire du CENTAL).
Communication : "Le TAL pour l'assistance à la lecture : lisibilité et simplification automatique de textes"

Lille, June 28, 2013, Université Lille 3 (Savoirs, Textes, Langage).
Communication : "Le TAL et l'assistance à la lecture : lisibilité et simplification automatique de textes"

Leuven, May 3, 2013, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL).
Communication : "Computational readability: limitations and challenges"

New York, September 21, 2012, City University of New York (CUNY).
Communication : "Computational readability: need for a domain-oriented approach"

Montréal, June 08, 2012, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).
Communication : "Les apports du TAL à la lisibilité du FLE".

Philadelphia, February 09, 2012, "CLUNCH", University of Pennsylvania.
Communication : "A readability formula for French as a foreign language".

Montpellier, September 29, 2011, "Séminaires sud4science, n°5", Maison des Sciences de l'Homme de Montpellier.
Communication : "Une approche statistique des corpus de SMS : outils et défis".

Namur, May 21, 2011, "Journée des doctorants de l'école doctorale en langues et lettres", Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix.
Communication : "Dmesure : une plateforme internet pour la lisibilité du français langue étrangère".

Louvain-la-Neuve, May 13, 2011, "Séminaires du CENTAL", Université catholique de Louvain.
Communication : "Une formule de lisibilité computationnelle pour le français langue étrangère ou seconde".

Louvain-la-Neuve, February 28, 2011, "Séminaires de l'IL&C", Université catholique de Louvain.
Communication : "Dmesure : une plateforme de lisibilité pour le français langue étrangère".

Gand, February 11, 2011, "Computational Linguistics in the Netherlands" (CLIN21), University College Ghent.
Communication (in collaboration with Naets, H.) : "Dmesure: a readability platform for French as a foreign language".

Courtrai, November 20, 2010, "Séminaires de l'ITEC", Université KULeuven.
Communication : "Dmesure: a readability formula for French as a foreign language".

Grenoble, November 27, 2009, "Conférences Industries de la Langue", Université Stendhal.
Communication : "Lisibilité du français langue étrangère et TAL : une manière de renouveau".

Marne-la-Vallée, May 18, 2009, "Séminaire interne de linguistique de l'IGM", Université de Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée.
Communication : "Modèles statistiques pour l'estimation automatique de la difficulté lexicale et syntaxique en FLE".

Bruxelles, May 17, 2008, "Journée des doctorants de l'école doctorale en langues et lettres", Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB).
Communication : "Prédire automatiquement la difficulté d'exercices à trous pour des apprenants FLE: une approche TAL".

François T. Atelier : Traitement automatique du langage en entreprise : études de cas , February, 8th, Forum "Innovation, technologies et plurilinguisme".

François T. Clear writing for Europe , December, 5th, Commission's Directorate-General for Translation.

François T. Les éclaireurs , February, 9th, Radio interview on La première.

François T., Les apports du traitement automatique du langage à la lisibilité du français langue étrangère , Ph.D. Thesis, Université Catholique de Louvain. Thesis Supervisors : Cédrick Fairon and Anne Catherine Simon.

François T., L'apprentissage des pronoms appellatifs qui régissent la rencontre francophone (France ou Belgique) à des Espagnols dans le cadre du cours de FLE, Master's Thesis, Université Catholique de Louvain. Thesis Supervisors : Luc Collès and Geneviève Fabry.

Faculty of Philosophy, Arts and Letters, UCLouvain, Belgium
Chargé de cours (Associate Professor) at UCLouvain

Faculty of Philosophy, Arts and Letters, UCLouvain, Belgium
Chargé de cours (Assistant Professor) at UCLouvain

CENTAL, UCLouvain, Belgium
Chargé de recherche FNRS (Postdoc researcher) at CENTAL

Faculty of Philosophy, Arts and Letters, UCLouvain, Belgium
Invited Associate Professor

CENTAL, UCLouvain, Belgium
Computational linguist and computer scientist at CENTAL

CENTAL, UCLouvain, Belgium
Post-doc researcher at CENTAL

Institute for Research in Cognitive Science, Philadelphia, United States
B.A.E.F. and Fulbright Postdoc Fellow at University of Pennsylvania

Aspirant F.N.R.S.,Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Ph.D. Student at UCLouvain

Fukuoka University, Fukuoka, Japan
French as a second language assistant

Institut Franco-japonais du Kyushu, Fukuoka, Japan
French and Spanish as second languages teacher

Académie des Langues, Marche-en-Famenne, Belgium
Spanish as a second language teacher

Institut Saint-Laurent (High School), Marche-en-Famenne, Belgium
French as a first language teacher

Bishopric of Hassake, Syria
French as a second language teacher

ASBL Roeland, Virton
French as a second language teacher