[Xmca-l] "English" as a school subject

[Peter Smagorinsky]

Hi, I'm writing mainly to my colleagues who are familiar with public school, pre-university (what we call K-12 in the US) education systems, with a question.

In English-speaking nations, there is a school subject called "English" that involves the study of literature (much from English-speaking authors, rather than "world literature" which may have its own separate course), writing (or now, multimodal composing), and language study (of the English language, often in the form of grammar instruction). This subject is not ESL, EFL, TESOL, or other way of describing learning the language of English by speakers of other languages.

My question: I know that in Russia there are school subjects of Russian literature and language; in the Netherlands there is the following:
The Study Dutch Language & Literature (Dutch: Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde) can be found at each Dutch university. Formerly you studied linguistics and literature, from about 1975 a third component was introduced: Taalbeheersing (Dutch for language skills, especially writing and argumentation). Nowadays the studies have new names, like Dutch Language and culture

Do other nations dedicate a school subject to this discipline (literature, writing, language study in L1 and generally nationalistic in curriculum)? If so, what is it called, and what does it comprise?

Thx,Peter