Data-driven learning (DDL) activities have the potential to teach various linguistic and functional components of a language. However, the broader applications of DDL—to assist learners in building their overall communicative competence—remain underexplored. This entry introduces an approach to exploiting corpora which integrates concepts from communicative language teaching (CLT) with DDL, called communicative DDL. This approach was trialled over 2 years with learners in Japan to investigate the efficacy of DDL as a core component of spoken communication courses (Hirata & Thompson, ELT Journal 76: 356–366, 2022). Introductory training using their native language (Japanese) was utilized to help learners familiarize themselves with the analytical process of reading concordance lines. They were then provided with ample opportunities to recontextualize and conceptualize any identified linguistic patterns, features, and sentence structures through realistic communication activities. The findings indicate that communicative DDL assists learners in achieving both accuracy and fluency, increasing speaking confidence and enthusiasm for English that they otherwise would not be able to achieve using conventional language materials. It was noted that this approach could potentially help learners to acquire a wide range of language proficiencies. The outcome of the trial also highlights the importance of cognitive engagement and genuine social interaction for human language development.