This volume explores the potential of using both cross-sectional and longitudinal learner corpora to investigate the interlanguage of learners with various L1 backgrounds and to subsequently apply the findings to language teaching and assessment. It is made up of 18 chapters selected from papers presented at the international conference 'Compiling and Using Learner Corpora', held in May 2013 at the University of Padua, Italy. The chapters discuss current issues and future developments of the use of learner corpora, present case studies based on teaching and assessment experiences in various contexts, and longitudinal corpus-based studies conducted within the Longitudinal Database of Learner English (LONGDALE) project. Other chapters report on investigations of specific aspects of the interlanguage of a variety of learner populations, and the last ones address issues of corpus compilation and representativeness. The majority of the contributions draw on data produced by EFL learners from Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, and the Netherlands, while others concern learners of Italian and Spanish as Foreign Languages.

Erik Castello and Katherine Ackerley are tenured researchers and lecturers in English language and linguistics at the University of Padua, Italy, while Francesca Coccetta is a researcher and lecturer in English language and linguistics at Ca Foscari University of Venice, Italy. Their research interests include corpus linguistics and computer and Internet technology for language teaching and assessment. They currently use computer learner corpora to inform both their research and teaching.