Integrating Language Learning and Teaching with the Construction of Computer Learner Corpora Duane Kindt Mark Wright INTRODUCTION The increasing popularity of using language corpora to inform language learning and teaching (LLT) is closely related to the widespread availability of fast personal computers and increasingly sophisticated software. Though corpus linguistics is now a well-established field initiated by pioneers such as Francis (1964) and Quirk (1968), the past 40 years have seen a gradual rise in the number of published works, leading to a boom in 1998 (for example, Biber, Conrad, & Reppen, 1998; Granger, 1998c; Kennedy, 1998; Oakes, 1998; Partington, 1998; Renouf, 1998). In the wake of this boom, the interest in putting tools for corpora analysis in the hands of language teachers has also increased dramatically. What has made these tools attractive for teachers? How do they change our view of language and language learning? How can the construction of corpora be integrated with classroom activities? And how do students react to corpus- informed materials (CIMs)? The purpose of this paper is to explore these questions. Assuming that most readers are new to working with corpora and corpus software, and to applying results to language- learning materials, we begin by briefly describing the origins of computer corpora and their applications. We offer some influences of corpus-based research (CBR) on how language is viewed before introducing an important subset of language corpora, the computer learner corpus (CLC) and elaborate on our reasons for interest in this area. This is followed by a description of our first corpus-building project along with classroom application and student reactions. To conclude, we briefly discuss the future of learner corpora construction at Nanzan University and encourage others to develop “home-grown” learner corpora of their own. LANGUAGE CORPORA BASICS Barnbrook (1996) defines a corpus (plural corpora) as “a sample of a larger collection of language [that] is intended to allow conclusions to be drawn about this larger body” (p. 24). If this collection of language has an index to the words in the text (Sinclair,