ABSTRACT
Language development refers to the process in which the language faculty develops in a human being. Measurement of language development is especially important for children suffering any delay or disorder in their language development. First of all, a corpus can be used to describe the characteristics of language produced by children in different age groups or different stages of development. Second, a corpus can be used to investigate the sequence or order in which children acquire different aspects of the grammar of their native language as well as to track the development of individual children over time. Third, a corpus can be used to assess the validity and adequacy of the various metrics proposed for measuring child language development. Finally, a corpus can also be used to gain in-depth understanding of language development disorders. The chapter discusses a number of ways that a corpus of learner language can be used to find out more about second language development.
