Creating effective electronic tools for language learning frequently requires large data sets containing extensive examples of actual human language use. Collections of authentic language in spoken and written forms provide developers the means to enrich their applications with real world examples. As the Internet continues to expand exponentially, the vast "cloud" of Web pages created provides a nearly inexhaustible and continuously updated language bank, particularly in English. The issue remains, however, of how to make practical use of large amounts of data for language learning, given storage and data processing demands. In this article, the author describes a plethora of new technical developments that make it possible to use large data sets for language learning. (Contains 1 figure.)