Interlanguage corpora and second language acquisition research

This article presents a selective review of the work carried out recently in second language acquisition (SLA) research which makes use of oral learner corpora and computer technologies. In the first part, the reasons why the field of SLA needs corpora for addressing current theoretical issues are briefly reviewed. In the second part, recent literature on corpora and SLA is presented, as well as corpora currently available. The final part of the article demonstrates the way in which computerized methodologies can be used, by presenting a case study of a project whose aim was to construct a database of French Learner Oral Corpora, and by illustrating how the CHILDES tools have assisted in addressing a specific research agenda.