ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses issues around using existing learner corpora to conduct Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research, and provides an overview of several corpora available to SLA researchers online or upon request from corresponding authors. Accumulated knowledge and experience, coupled with advances in technology, mean there are now many learner corpora readily accessible either for a nominal fee or free of charge. Learner corpora are made available in different formats. The two most common types of annotation in available learner corpora are morpho-syntactic and error annotation. Some types of learner metadata of interest when conducting an SLA study, such as the age of the learners, language learning biography, length of input, and stays abroad, are not consistently reported in the currently available learner corpora. As more language researchers discover the benefits of corpus approaches, there are more learner corpora being constructed and made available, with increases in number and variation in type.
