Learner corpora are ‘systematic collections of authentic, continuous and contextualized language use (spoken or written) by L2 learners stored in electronic format’ (Callies & Paquot, 2015). For EFL instructors, examining student language production through corpora can improve one’s understanding of such issues as frequent spelling and grammatical errors, and over/under-use of particular words or phrases by learners at different proficiency levels. This presentation will begin with an overview of some of the key findings from learner corpus research to date. The focus will then shift to a look at the ICNALE suite of corpora (Ishikawa, 2023). Participants will be given a brief explanation of the various corpora available, followed by useful insights into the spoken and written language production of Japanese university students. I also present the provisional findings of an ongoing co-investigation into lexical bundles in argumentative essays and monologues taken from two ICNALE subcorpora. Finally, I will offer recommendations and advice on how teacher practitioners can best utilize learner corpora for their own pedagogical purposes.
