This article discusses the occurrences of clusters with the word for, in argumentative essays written by undergraduate Brazilian learners of English and suggests pedagogical activities to encourage the discovery of linguistic patterns. We use Corpus Linguistics (CL) tools in our analysis and pedagogical suggestions. Our research is based on data collected from the Brazilian Corpus of English Learners (Corpus de Aprendizes Brasileiros do Inglês - CABrI) in comparison with other corpora. The results, which pointed to appropriate or inappropriate use of bundles such as verb + for and noun + for, are followed by activities that aim to integrate grammar and lexis and to promote learners' awareness of frequency of use of certain linguistic bundles.
learner corpus; frequency; teaching grammar and vocabulary