While learner corpora, as with their native-speaker counterparts, have been used to compile dictionaries and grammars for learners based on typical problems and errors of usage found in learner data, they can also be used by teachers and learners themselves to observe and assess their own and one another's performance in a more relaxed and more anonymous way, without the strains of real-time monitoring. Even relatively small corpora consisting of 10,000 words can yield a massive amount of usage data. Such data can then be compared with, for example, native-speaker corpora to reveal what learners are not using, as well as how correctly or appropriately they are using the target language. Moreover, learner corpora can be diagnostic, tracking the progress of learners over the course of a semester, a year or a longer time period. Thus, learner corpora represent concrete empirical evidence of language development.

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Project 2010-2014: Graphic Online Language Diagnostic
Objectives: To expand training and support materials for teachers on how to use Graphic Online Language Diagnostic (GOLD) to assess learner language development and to expand the graphic display features of GOLD.

Project Directors 2010-2014: Xiaofei Lu and Gabriela Appel, The Pennsylvania State University
Consultant: Michael McCarthy, Professor Emeritus, The University of Nottingham, Affiliate Professor, The Pennsylvania State University

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	The Graphic Online Language Diagnostic (GOLD) is a web-based easy-to use assessment instrument. It enables language teachers to create their own corpora from their students' spoken and written performance and to analyze and benchmark student performance. It also allows teachers to trace the development of individual students or groups of students over time.
	CALPER's Corpus Portal is is a gateway to information and tools for teachers interested in exploring ways in which corpus data can be used in language teaching, learning and assessment. CALPER's Graphic Online Language Diagnostic (GOLD) Online Corpus Tutorial Corpus Community Reports CALPERLEX Corpus Resources

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Articles:

McCarthy, M. (2003). Using a corpus in language teaching. (CALPER Professional Development Document 0410). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University, Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research. [CALPER DOWNLOAD]

McCarthy, M., & Evison, J. (2004). Using corpora in language teaching. (CALPER Digest 01). University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University, Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research. [CALPER DOWNLOAD]

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Slideshows:

Lu, X. (2010). Corpora and Learner Corpora (Using GOLD, Part 1).[Voice-over PPT, adapted from a presentation given at ACTFL 2009]

Lu, X. (2010). Graphic Online Language Diagnostic (Using GOLD, Part 2). [Voice-over PPT, adapted from a presentation given at ACTFL 2009]

Lu, X. (2010). Corpus Analysis (Using GOLD, Part 3).[Voice-over PPT, adapted from a presentation given at ACTFL 2009]

Lantolf, J.P. & Thorne, S. (2006) . Tracking Learning: Using Corpus Linguistics to Assess Language Development [PPT from a presentation given at ACTFL 2006]

Tao, H. (2006) Developing Teaching Materials with Authentic Data and Corpus Analysis Tools. [PPT from a presentation given at the 3rd UC Language Consortium Conference at UCLA ]