CfP: RiCL Journal special issue - Learner Corpus Research meets the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and the Companion Volume

*CFPs special issue of Research in Corpus Linguistics (RiCL)*

*‘Learner Corpus Research meets the Common European Framework of Reference
for Languages and the Companion Volume’*



Due to the importance of the *Common European Framework of Reference for
Languages* (CEFR) and the *Companion Volume* (CV) (Council of Europe, 2001,
2020) for the learning, teaching and assessment of languages, most learner
corpora nowadays employ the learner’s CEFR level to specify the student’s
communicative language competence level or proficiency level.

Most learner corpora compiled in CEFR-aligned high-stakes foreign language
accreditation/certification exams - for instance, the *Cambridge Learner
Corpus* (O’Keeffe & Mark, 2017), the *FineDesc Learner Corpus *(Díez-Bedmar,
2025) - are composed of learners of English production in successful
certification/accreditation exams at different CEFR levels. Other target
languages are compiled in similar foreign language
accreditation/certification exam conditions, such as the CELI corpus for
Italian (Spina et al., 2023) or the Merlin corpus for Italian, German and
Czech (Wisniewski, 2020). Other learner corpora composed of
 accreditation/certification exams that are not aligned to the CEFR or
learner corpora compiled in other contexts have also been partially or
fully aligned to the CEFR levels, as reported by Gablasova et al., (2019)
regarding the *Trinity Lancaster* *Corpus*, Thewissen (2013) concerning
*ICLE* or Tono (2018) as to the *JEFLL corpus*.

The use of LCR results from CEFR-aligned learner corpora to inform or
facilitate the implementation of the CEFR/CV is, however, still limited.
Among the most important LCR contributions in this respect are those
by the *English
Profile Project* (Salamoura, 2008) and the CEFR-J Project (Tono, 2019). The
former used the *Cambridge Learner Corpus* to provide linguistic
information on the language produced at each CEFR level (UCLES/CUP, 2011)
and freely available online resources (eg., the English Grammar Profile and
the English Vocabulary Profile).  The latter employed learner corpora,
among other corpora types, to adapt the CEFR for the L1 Japanese EFL
context (12 sublevels), create the Vocabulary Profile and the Grammar
Profile.

Despite these efforts, CEFR/CV end-users and stake-holders find
difficulties in the implementation of the CEFR/CV in their L1-contexts, on
most occasions due to the language neutral nature of the CEFR/CV
descriptors (see Díez-Bedmar & Byram, 2019; Díez-Bedmar & Luque-Agulló,
2023; Luque-Agulló & Díez-Bedmar, 2025). It is for this reason that they
demand fine-tuned descriptors, i.e., CEFR/CV descriptors informed by
CEFR-aligned L1-specific learner corpus results (Díez-Bedmar, 2018). In the
Spanish context, the *FineDesc Project* (Grant PID2020-117041GA-I00, funded
by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) has provided L1 Spanish CEFR/CV
end-users and stake-holders’ with  fine-tuned descriptors thanks to the
analysis of the 1.3-million-word *FineDesc Learner* *Corpus* (Díez-Bedmar,
2025), a freely available L1-specific learner corpus by L1 Spanish
monolingual students (or bilingual L1 Spanish/a co-official language in
Spain). The learner corpus results have informed fine-tuned descriptors not
only for the linguistic competence, but also for the sociolinguistic and
pragmatic ones, when students engage in different communicative language
activities at B1, B2 and C1 levels (see Díez-Bedmar et al., 2026). These
fine-tuned descriptors aim at paving the way for the implementation of the
CEFR/CV in the L1 Spanish context.

These are just some examples which show how LCR may inform the CEFR/CV and
facilitate its implementation in different contexts. Other efforts are
being made by the LCR community by using either general CEFR-aligned
learner corpora or L1-specific ones, as shown in some papers presented at
the International Online Conference ‘Bringing together research on the
CEFR/CV and LCR: a focus on descriptors’ which was organized by the
FineDesc Project (https://web.ujaen.es/investiga/finedesc/index.php).

It is the objective of this special issue to bring together research on the
different ways how LCR may meet the CEFR/CV. Contributions which employ any
reliably CEFR-aligned learner corpus with this objective in mind are
welcome, whether they were presented at the conference or not. Researchers
who do not have access to any CEFR-aligned learner corpus are encouraged to
use the *FineDesc Learner Corpus*, freely available at www.finedesc.com.



*Potential topics for this special issue are (but are not limited to):*

-The fine-tuning of CEFR/CV descriptors for L1-specific contexts thanks to
LCR.

-The integration of CAF results in fine-tuned descriptors.

-The (cross-sectional) analysis of CEFR-aligned learner corpora considering
the linguistic, sociolinguistic or pragmatic competences to inform
CEFR-aligned pedagogical resources/language assessment.

-The exploitation of CEFR-aligned learner corpora to design tools/software
which may help analyse learner corpora at different CEFR levels.

-The overcoming of any difficulties in CEFR/CV implementation with the help
of LCR.



*Important dates*

Deadline for proposals:  April 30, 2026

Outcome of proposal review: May 21, 2026

Deadline for manuscript first drafts: December 1,2026

Notification of reviewer outcome:  March 5, 2027

Deadline for manuscript final drafts:  May 28th, 2027

Special issue publication: Autumn 2027



*Proposal format and submission*

Potential contributors should prepare an extended 800-word abstract of the
proposed paper following RiCL’s submission guidelines, which can be found
at https://ricl.aelinco.es/index.php/ricl/about/submissions

The abstract should include a tentative title, motivate the study, state
the research questions, provide methodological information (learner corpus
or learner corpora analysed and the procedure employed to align it/them to
CEFR/CV levels as well as the statistical tests employed), tentative
results and clear information on the way how the results inform the CEFR/CV
and its implementation.

Please submit your proposal to the special issue editor, María Belén
Díez-Bedmar ([email protected]), before the deadline (April 30, 2026)
including in your proposal your name(s), email(s) and affiliation(s).



*Peer review*

All accepted manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.



*References*

Council of Europe (2001). Common European Framework of Reference for
Languages: learning, teaching, assessment. Council of Europe Publishing.

Council of Europe (2020). Common European Framework of Reference for
Languages: learning, teaching, assessment – Companion Volume. Council of
Europe Publishing.

Díez-Bedmar, M. B. (2018). Fine-tuning descriptors for CEFR B1 level:
insights from learner corpora. *ELT Journal*, 72(2), 199-209.
https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccx052

Díez-Bedmar, M. B. (2025). FineDesc Learner Corpus 2.0 (España,
2510243469857). SafeCreative. https://www.safecreative.org/validity

Díez-Bedmar, M. B., & Byram, M. (2019). The current influence of the CEFR
in secondary education: teachers’ perceptions. *Language, Culture and
Curriculum*,* 32*(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2018.1493492

Díez-Bedmar, M. B., Laso-Martín, N. J., Maíz-Arévalo, C., & Carrió-Pastor,
M. L.  (2026). Supplement to the Common European Framework of Reference for
Languages and the Companion Volume: L1 Spanish users (Spain,
2601214327051). SafeCreative. https://www.safecreative.org/validity

Díez-Bedmar, M. B. & Luque-Agulló, G. (2023). Analysing the CEFR/CV in
University Language Centres in Spain: The Raters' Perspective. In M.
Fernández Álvarez & A. L. Gordenstein Montes (Eds.), *Global Perspectives
on Effective Assessment in English Language Teaching* (pp. 1-33). IGI
Global.

Gablasova, D., Brezina, V., & McEnery, T. (2019). The Trinity Lancaster
Corpus. Development, description and application. *International Journal of
Learner Corpus Research*, *5*(2), 126-158.
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijlcr.19001.gab

Luque-Agulló, G. & Díez-Bedmar, M.B. (2025). Listening to the teachers:
CEFR implementation in University language Centres in Spain. *Revista de
Lingüística y Lenguas Aplicadas* (RLyLA),*20*, 72-86.
https://doi.org/10.4995/rlyla.2025.21285

O’Keeffe, A., and Mark, G. 2017. The English Grammar Profile of learner
competence: Methodology and key findings. *International Journal of Corpus
Linguistics,* *22*(4), 457-489. https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.14086.oke

Salamoura, A. (2008). Aligning English Profile research data to the CEFR.
Cambridge ESOL: *Research Notes*, *33*, 5–7.

Spina, S., Fioravanti, I., Forti, L., & Zanda, F. (2023). The CELI corpus:
Design and linguistic annotation of a new online learner corpus. *Second
Language Research*, 40(2), 457-477.
https://doi.org/10.1177/02676583231176370

Thewissen, J. (2013). Capturing L2 accuracy developmental patterns:
Insights from an error-tagged EFL learner corpus. *The Modern Language
Journal*, *97*(S1), 77-101.

Tono, Y. (2018). Corpus approaches to L2 Learner Profiling Research. In Y.
N. Leung, J. Katchen, S. Y. Hwang & Y. Chen (Eds.), Reconceptualizing
English language teaching and learning in the 21st century: A special
monograph in memory of Professor Kai-Chong Cheung (pp. 390-402). Taipei,
Taiwan: Crane Publishing Company.

Tono, Y. (2019). Coming full circle – from CEFR to CEFR-J and back. CEFR
Journal. *Research and Practice*, *1*, 5-17.
https://doi.org/10.37546/JALTSIG.CEFR1-1

UCLES/CUP (2011). *English Profile. Introducing the CEFR for English
Version 1.1*. Cambridge University Press.

Wisniewski, K. (2020). SLA developmental stages in the CEFR-related learner
corpus MERLIN: Inversion and verb-end structures in German A2 and B1
learner texts. *International Journal of* *Learner Corpus Research*, *6*(1),
1–17. https://doi.org/10.1075/ijlcr.18008.wis

<https://doi.org/10.1075/ijlcr.18008.wis>

<https://doi.org/10.1075/ijlcr.18008.wis>

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