Because “War is much too serious to be left to the military,” Corpus linguistics is a thing, and it is a very useful thing too

Abstract

Corpus linguistics, although a relatively new field of research endeavour, has made great strides in language research and teaching. It has enhanced the reliability and productivity of the results of language research. Yet, it is relatively unknown in particularly African linguistic academies and as such its gains lost to the communities and language teaching-learning contexts where it has made its most significant impacts. This study has the primary objectives of raising the awareness of researchers on the corpus method of language research and proving its value beyond the conventional introspective methods of language investigation. Therefore, it introduces the field of corpus linguistics, describes the different types of corpora and illustrates their applications in language teaching and learning.