One of the most important recent contributions to the study of written language has been the development of genre theory. Genre theorists try to find links between the institutional practices of "discourse communities" and the standard ways on which these are expressed in language. For instance, academics have ways of communicating knowledge (journal articles, book reviews, etc.) which conform to particular sets of discourse features that have evolved over time. To become an accepted member of the discourse community of academics, one is expected to conform to the norms of academic writing. Swales' (1990) seminal book on genre analysis explores these issues in great depth. But what of spoken language? Are there institutional norms for speech? Have forms of discourse evolved for different types of spoken encounters? If so, (a) can we describe them, an (b) what importance does such a description have for language teaching? In this article, I shall give an overview of the issues involved in these questions.