Sharing corpus resources in language learning

Since the early 1990s, researchers have been investigating the effectiveness of corpora as a resource in language learning, mostly creating their own small corpora. As it is neither feasible nor desirable to envisage a future in which all teachers create their own corpora, and as the content of language courses is similar in many universities throughout the world, the sharing of resources is clearly necessary if corpus data are to be made available to language teachers and learners on a large scale. Taking one small corpus as an example, this chapter aims to investigate the issues arising if corpus consultation is to become an integral part of the language-learning environment. The chapter firstly deals with fundamental questions concerning the creation and reusability of corpora, namely planning, construction, documentation, and also legal, moral and technical issues. It then explores the issues arising from the use of a corpus of familiar texts, in this case a French journalistic corpus, with advanced learners. In conclusion we propose a framework for the optimal use of corpora with language learners in the context of higher education.