We use language to make sense of our world through thought and communication. It is also a means of expressing cultural and aesthetic values and meanings. Effective language use enables students to acquire knowledge, express themselves, interact with others and manage their world. Mastery of a language provides a powerful means of constructing and expressing diversity, identity, knowledge and ideas. Through language students are empowered to name their world, and in doing so create a better world than the one they have inherited.

For the NC(V), however, the study of a language has to be more than that. Language also has to provide students with a means of communication in the workplace. In most cases this means a language other than their own. While most students who enrol at an FET College will have had exposure to the FAL, many will not yet be fluent or accurate enough. Oral fluency is also not a guarantee of fluency in writing. In addition to this, the NC(V) English FAL curriculum has to fulfil a myriad of purposes: it has to prepare students for the world of work; it has to create a critical awareness of how language can be used; it has to prepare students to cope with their college studies in English and it has to ultimately prepare students to pursue further studies if they so wish.