Abstract
Even at the higher proficiency levels, many learners continue to rely on the same limited range of basic expressions to express opinions, persuade and present arguments (e.g. I think, X is very important, because of this) or are not aware of register differences and thus frequently use words and phrases typical of written discourse in their spoken production (e.g. it has been argued that, moreover).
This chapter outlines how advanced students can explore a corpus of transcripts of discussions and debates from the European Parliament to tap into a wealth of useful expressions and find out how they are used in an authentic context. The proposed data-driven learning lesson involves a hands-on corpus-based activity aimed at enabling students to improve their speaking skills.
It relies on the EUROPARL subcorpus in InterCorp via the free KonText interface. In the second half of the lesson, students are then encouraged to try out their newly acquired expressions in a series of mini debates on familiar topics to be chosen by the teacher.