Using Learner Corpora to Inform Material Development and Classroom Practices

This article examines how a university in Japan uses a longitudinal learner corpus to bridge the gap between research and classroom practice in a two-year English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program. This large-scale longitudinal corpus is comprised of texts collected from first- and second-year Japanese university L2 English learners (n = 701) at multiple points of time and across different writing prompts. The corpus was correlated to participants' demographic and linguistic information to better understand the learners' vocabulary needs. The article explores the insights that can be gained from an analysis of this corpus and investigates how these insights can but used to develop materials tailored to learners' backgrounds and proficiency levels. This builds on earlier studies that have used corpora derived from L1 texts to help identify what expressions learners need to know. However, L2 speaker vocabulary usage differs from L1 usage. Using learner corpora can reveal actual patterns of L2 vocabulary development, allowing for classroom practices that target student needs. This article highlights how written corpora allowed us to develop holistic classroom practices that helped learners improve their proficiency. The article contributes to the dialogue between research and practice by demonstrating how learner corpora can inform teaching. It illustrates the interplay between research and classroom application and highlights how learner corpora can enhance language education.