Šmilauer Ivan

Ivan Šmilauer is a Senior Lecturer in Czech Language and Linguistics at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Inalco) in Paris. He is affiliated with the PLIDAM research center and serves as co-responsible for axis 5 of PLIDAM focused on "Development and practice of digital tools for language and culture teaching and learning." Previously, he served as vice-president of Inalco and digital delegate (2019-2024).

Šmilauer completed his PhD thesis titled "Acquisition du tchèque par les francophones : analyse automatique des erreurs de déclinaison" (Acquisition of Czech by French speakers: automatic analysis of declension errors) under the direction of Patrice Pognan at INALCO and Eva Hajičová at Charles University in Prague. His thesis was defended in Paris on November 29, 2008 with congratulations from the jury.

His primary research interests span Czech language and linguistics, natural language processing, teaching Czech as a foreign language, modeling of Czech morphology acquisition, and error analysis. Šmilauer has pioneered the development of digital tools for language learning, particularly focusing on Czech grammar instruction. His work bridges theoretical linguistics with practical applications in language education, emphasizing how computational approaches can enhance language acquisition.

Šmilauer's scholarly output demonstrates a consistent focus on the intersection of language technology and pedagogy. His publications reveal evolving trends from theoretical linguistic analysis toward practical applications in digital language learning environments. He has made significant contributions to understanding error patterns in Czech language acquisition, particularly in declension systems, and has translated this research into practical teaching tools.

As an educator, Šmilauer teaches Czech grammar courses at various levels (L1-L3) in the LLCER ("Langues, littératures et civilisations étrangères et régionales") program with a Czech specialization, as well as advanced Czech language practice in the Master's program "Langues, cultures et sociétés du monde" with a European-Eurasian track.

Šmilauer has developed several important pedagogical resources, most notably the CETLEF platform - a web application providing Czech declension exercises with automatic error diagnosis, available since 2008 with over 800 registered users. He also coordinated the Czech team for the MOOC "Kit de contact en langues" project (2015-2017) and developed the CETLEF-Slovak platform for Slovak declension.

He has organized numerous academic events, including co-organizing the "Journées AHFLO'" in 2023, the "BOOTCAMP n°#9" of VPNUM in 2022, and the "Journée de la pédagogie numérique à l'Inalco" (JPNI2020) in 2020. Since 2009, he has co-organized the "Informels linguistiques" seminar at Inalco with Olivier Bondeelle and Nicolas Aubry.