This paper explores the potential of parallel corpora in foreign language learning and teaching. After an overview of the corpus-based pedagogical method of data-driven learning, the main requirements of a corpus to be used in the classroom are outlined. Subsequently, the bilingual parallel corpus Spanish/German, PaGeS, is introduced, the steps in its creation are sketched and the different search possibilities are briefly described. The potential of the PaGeS corpus is illustrated by a practical case study: the German equivalents of the Spanish verb salir.