The compilation of the spoken sub-corpus for the Tartu corpus of Estonian learner English

Abstract

Computer learner corpora (CLC) are electronic stored collections of either written or spoken texts which are produced by learners of a language, as a foreign language (Granger 2004: 124). Computer Learner Corpus research is a fairly new and growing discipline. The problem with most corpora which have been compiled so far is that they are not publicly available, thus they are not accessible for researchers outside of the specific corpus team. In Estonia, studying learner language and using corpora has become more and more popular during the recent years, yet there is still much to learn about the Estonian learners of English. There have been some studies about written learner corpora but studying and compiling a spoken learner corpus is not a common practice yet, mainly because compiling a spoken corpus is a more time-consuming process.