ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the centrality of spontaneous, oral production in Processability Theory (PT) predictions with respect to the challenges and advantages for corpus research. It discusses several core issues and topics in PT research germane to corpus-based second language acquisition research. The chapter explains the main research methodology employed in PT corpus studies. It examines the overall procedures for coding corpora data for the PT structures. The chapter highlights three corpora – the French Learner Language Oral Corpora, Spanish Language Learner Oral Corpus, and the Housen Corpus of Young Learner Interlanguage – for use in further PT research. Future PT studies would benefit from taking advantage of any available corpora for the language of interest, provided that the data consist of spontaneous, oral production data. Given the nature of the theory’s predictions, spontaneous language production precludes any kind of task that allows a learner to reflect explicitly on his or her language production.
