Keynote speakers

Frederik Cornillie, PhD

Research and valorization manager

Faculty of Arts & research group Itec

KU Leuven

Keynote Title

Ludic language learning and teaching in the age of AI

Bio

Frederik Cornillie (Ph.D., KU Leuven) is research and valorization manager in educational technology at KU Leuven and at the strategic research institute imec in Belgium. His main research specialty concerns computer-assisted language learning (CALL), more specifically the intersection of language education (instructed second language acquisition), games and play, and digital technologies. He is particularly interested in mechanisms that support effective and engaging second and foreign language (L2) learning in instructed contexts that are digitally-mediated and that incorporate games or design elements of gaming. Within these environments, he investigates the impact of explicit instruction, practice, feedback, collaboration with peers, and other types of learning support on L2 learning, in synergy with the teacher as a critical mediator of student learning. Frederik is also passionate about research-based design and development of CALL applications.

Frederik’s research output has been published in a wide range of internationally-oriented and peer-reviewed journals in the field of CALL, including ReCALL, CALICO Journal, and Language Learning and Technology, as well as in edited volumes published by Routledge, Cambridge University Press, John Benjamins, and Bloomsbury. He co-edited a special issue of ReCALL in 2012 on digital gaming for language learning, and has co-organized conferences, symposia and workshops in the field of CALL such as the International CALL Research Conference in Bruges (Belgium) in 2018, EuroCALL in Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium) in 2019, and the CALICO conference in Minneapolis (US) in 2023. He was associate editor of ReCALL between 2015 and 2019, and currently serves as editorial board member for ReCALL and Language Learning and Technology. He was also board member at CALICO between 2021 and 2024. He has won multiple awards in the field of CALL and second language acquisition more widely, including the Outstanding Graduate Student Award from CALICO in 2014, the Best Article Award from the Journal of the European Second Language Association (with Kristof Baten as first author), and the Outstanding Article Award from CALICO Journal, twice (once as joint first co-author, with Julie Gijpen). He teaches the master course on computer-assisted language education at KU Leuven, and collaborates intensively with EdTech companies and teachers in secondary schools with a view to co-creating societal and economic impact in the field of language learning and teaching.

Abstract

In this age of generative AI, technological capabilities are unprecedented. While these can augment human productivity, cognition, and creativity, language is becoming more and more predictable, and human interaction is at risk of being eroded. Equally, in second and foreign language (L2) education, the rapid adoption of AI technologies is disrupting established practices, in good, bad, and ugly ways. In this talk, I will argue that language educators, learners, and researchers must collectively resist the current push for AI technology by grounding pedagogical practice and research in what we know about successful L2 learning and teaching (with both digital and analogue technologies), and that one approach to doing so lies in critically harnessing the power of games and play.

My talk will consist of three parts. First, I will offer a critical post-mortem of my PhD project on digital game-based language learning (Cornillie, 2014). I examine how a theory-driven and technology-centric approach created a divide between research and practice that ultimately limited the potential for impact in classrooms. Second, I will argue that games and playful interaction (in and with the target language) are vital in these times – alongside purposeful use of generative AI – to foster both L2 proficiency and broader educational goals related to language, literacy and personal development. To motivate my argument, I will draw on developmental psychology and cognitive linguistics, and I will situate my position in a liberal arts perspective on L2 education. To bridge research with practice, I will advocate for a low-tech and teacher-centric approach to bringing games and play sustainably in the L2 classroom, namely Ludic Language Pedagogy (York et al., 2021). In the final part, I will share three projects from my recent research that illustrate how low-tech games and play have been successfully implemented in Belgian secondary schools to cultivate functional L2 learning outcomes and broader transversal competencies. In the first project, students collaboratively played an interactive fiction game that was thoughtfully modified to scaffold vocabulary learning in English. The second project investigated adaptivity in an educational game for spoken conversation practice in French. In the third project, students played with language in learning activities that were inspired by fanfiction practices and supported by generative AI to support literary reading and storytelling skills. I will conclude with reflections on adapting these projects to other teaching contexts.