The information technological boom, which thoroughly changed the circulation and acceptance of information, has no impact at all on language teaching in Russian secondary and higher schools. The textual world is changing apace and beyond recognition. The problem of aloof) ness of Russian teaching to practical life fully concerns Russian language teaching. The article demonstrates the functional opportunities of a new language resource known as The National Corpus. Its use in teaching humanities at secondary and higher school promises to help tackling academic and practical pedagogical problems.