The major single focus of language pedagogy tends to be on developing language skills. Although language proficiency is an obvious objective, language pedagogy can benefit from relevant content that brings about invaluable cultural awareness and language awareness.
Traditionally, foreign language learning and teaching in the school setting has been characterized by the exclusive focus on language skills as the object of study. Due to this focus, possibly reinforced by deeply rooted beliefs in the relevance of focus on forms, many language classrooms lack any form of content beyond explicit instruction. One of the consequences of this is a growing disinterest in languages at school and a dramatic decline in the number of university students taking foreign languages (Modern Language Association). For the Dutch context proposals have therefore been raised to enrich the curriculum of modern foreign languages with content that matters. Three areas of content are proposed that will not only make the study of language more relevant and more attractive, but will also enhance the development of language proficiency. The optimal goal of language teaching consists of a balanced focus on cultural awareness, language awareness and language proficiency to enhance intercultural communicative competence. Language and culture are inextricably related, and language learners will benefit from explicit attention to cultural awareness, which includes creative and metaphorical use of the language. Moreover, language awareness opens a world of valuable knowledge leading to understanding the use of language in different contexts, but also the acquisition of language, cognitive aspects of language processing, and language structure. These topics then provide ample opportunity for meaningful communication to promote language skills. While CLIL approaches have created successful contexts to facilitate language learning, it is about time we apply these findings to the language classroom as content-driven language education.
