In response to his article describing a new English-language corpus designed to reflect current usage, the author agrees that extreme forms of corpus-driven language teaching are inappropriate but also that more corpus-based language instruction is needed, and that the language teaching can only benefit from better language description. (MSE)

Discusses the description of English discourse for teaching purposes, drawing on new information from analysis of CANCODE (Cambridge/Nottingham Corpus of Discourse in English). Concludes that language teaching should be based on regularities and patterns, not rules, and that exposure to real, informal language of native speakers, with its…

Discusses the evolution and content of CANCODE, an English-language corpus under development at the University of Nottingham (England) designed to reflect current language use, and several related issues: whether the grammar currently taught should be changed to more closely correspond to common usage; whether the native speaker should be the…