n late 1999, I was asked to develop a content-based curriculum for a ten-week course for a select group of immigrants living in Ottawa, Canada. The course was held at Algonquin College of Applied Arts and Technology and was funded by the Language for Employment Related Needs Project (LERN). The curriculum consisted of two distinct phases: language delivery and employment awareness. Although the employment awareness phase (independently developed and delivered by Local Agencies Serving Immigrants) was an integral component of the program, the focus of this paper is on insights gained from the language-delivery phase.