ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how the non-English foreign language (FL) abilities of learners in US higher education institutions could be enhanced. It does so from a somewhat unusual vantage point, namely by foregrounding curriculum development and presenting it as a theoretically and empirically grounded way for bolstering long-standing assumptions about the merits of FL study. The author's understanding of the construct 'curriculum' is further specified in comparison with diverse efforts to reform higher education programmes. Notable differences pertain to the relationship of curriculum to pedagogy; to instructional content, including how to link content and language learning; and to the development of literacy. For a foreign language curriculum to follow that same general trajectory of cognitive-linguistic development also for linguistic adults has recommend itself, precisely because even cognitive adults need to first build up certain linguistic resources in order to be able to mean certain things.
