Curriculum: Foreign language learning

Abstract

This article presents an overview of various issues related to curriculum in foreign language learning, and in particular focuses on learning English as a foreign language (EFL). Foreign language learning is taken to mean the learning of a language other than the learner’s first language (L1), and this language is not ordinarily used in the learner’s everyday life. Thus, foreign language learning contexts are very different from second language learning contexts, for in second language learning contexts, the language being learned is often used in the learner’s larger social context (even though it might not be always used in the learner’s immediate home or community). This distinction should not be seen as categorical, as some contexts lie in between the prototypical foreign language learning contexts and the prototypical second language learning contexts. However, as is discussed in this review, the importance of understanding the sociocultural, sociopolitical, and socioeconomic situatedness of second and foreign language learning in diverse contexts of the world has, until recently, been underrepresented in the literature.