News

4th meeting of the ANR STAR-FLE project

January 22-23 2026

Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

On January 22–23, 2026, the 4th meeting of the ANR STAR-FLE project took place in Louvain-la-Neuve. It brought together the project partners to review the progress of the different work packages. Discussions focused in particular on the identification of lexical comprehension difficulties and the analysis of pedagogical resources, the progress of the annotation campaign and the automatic identification of multiword expressions, as well as on future work concerning the estimation of lexical difficulty levels, lexical substitution, and its evaluation. The second day was devoted to linking with lexical resources and the simplification of definitions, followed by a final discussion on the next steps of the project.

Meeting agenda

14 November 2025

Linguistique, Langues, Parole (LiLPa) Laboratory, University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg

As part of the inter-axis seminar “The word in all its states” organized by the LiLPa laboratory (Linguistique, Langues, Parole), the STAR-FLE project doctoral researcher, Anna Kalinina, gave a presentation entitled “Defining the word in the study of multiword expressions: between linguistics, NLP and French as a Foreign Language (FLE)”. In this talk, she addressed the notion of word in these three fields, linking it to the phenomenon of multiword expressions. She also took part in a round-table discussion with other members of the LiLPa laboratory.

1 October 2025

European Parliament, Strasbourg

As part of the international ORBICOM – CIAREI conference “Communication, Artificial Intelligence, Remediation, Ethics and Inclusion”, held in Strasbourg from 29 September to 1 October 2025, the ANR STAR-FLE project doctoral researcher Anna Kalinina presented a paper entitled “AI for FLE: Classification and Annotation of Multiword Expressions for Inclusive Learning.” The presentation focused on the use of Natural Language Processing technologies to identify and annotate multiword expressions, with the aim of supporting the development of more inclusive pedagogical resources for teaching French as a Foreign Language within the STAR-FLE project.

Research sessions completed with new FFL students

March 2025

Aix Marseille Université (AMU), Aix-en-Provence

During the month of March, the STAR-FLE research team from the Laboratoire Parole et Langage (LPL) completed a series of four study sessions with 82 new FFL students at the Service Universitaire des Langues (SUL) at Aix Marseille Université (AMU) in Aix-en-Provence. Students were invited to the computer labs to complete an online questionnaire in order to construct their individual learner profiles (langauges spoken, experience with French, motivations, learning preferences, reading habits, etc.) and annotated two B1/2 level texts according to the perceived difficulty level of unknown words and polylexical expressions. Their reading comprehension was also tested. Data analysis will examine the relationship between reading comprehension and word and expression types B1 learners find most difficult and will consider how lexical difficulty ratings may be predicatable based on individual learner profiles.

June 2025

ITI LiRiC | Langage, inclusion, remédiation, interculturalité & communication & LiLPa (Linguistique, Langues, Parole), Strasbourg

As part of the ANR STAR-FLE project, doctoral researcher Anna Kalinina participated in the 1st Summer School of ITI LiRiC, where she presented a poster entitled “Towards an Integrated Classification of Multiword Expressions in FLE”. The event also provided her with the opportunity to take part in workshops and engaging discussions on inclusion, language, and identity, highlighting the inclusive focus of the research conducted within the STAR-FLE project.

3rd Meeting of the ANR STAR-FLE Project

January 20-21, 2025

Nancy

On January 20th and 21st, the 3rd meeting of the ANR STAR-FLE project took place in Nancy. This event provided an opportunity to delve deeper into several key aspects of the project, including the annotation of multiword expressions, the development of typologies adapted to NLP tools, the analysis of factors influencing lexical complexity, and the evaluation of reading tests for language learners. These discussions strengthened collaboration among participants to better structure the next steps of the project.

Meeting Agenda

Pilot study #2

November 26, 2024

On November 26 we conducted a second pilot at the Schuman Campus of Aix Marseille Université (AMU) in Aix-en-Provence to test out the PADDLe reading platform. Although the first part of the study with the learner questionnaire went well, we experienced some technical difficulties with the PADDLe platform and had to move the reading tests onto Zoom on a different day. In total, 30 students at the B1 level completed the full study. We plan to conduct the main study with a larger group of participants at the B1 level in February of 2025.

Pilot study #1

October 23, 2024

On October 23, we conducted a pilot study on the Aix Marseille University (AMU) campus in Marseille with 12 B1-level French learners. We were able to test out our reading test platform (PADDLe) and observe how participants complete the individual learner survey. With this information in hand, we made a few adjustments to the study procedure, including reducing the reading tests to only two texts and moving the individual questionnaire to an online format via Google Forms. We will implement these changes for our next data collection procedure on November 26, where we will have about 70 participants complete the study on the AMU campus in Aix-en-Provence.

New Appointments

September 2, 2024

We are excited to announce that:

Martha Black has joined the ANR STAR-FLE project as a postdoctoral researcher at the LPL laboratory (Aix-Marseille University)
Anna Kalinina has joined the ANR STAR-FLE project as a PhD candidate at the LiLPa laboratory (University of Strasbourg)