This paper is an analysis of the teaching materials used for five content courses to teach a foreign language. First, I will briefly define what a content course is, what their applications can be and describe some experiences. I will then show how this kind of course meets the principles of teaching a foreign language focusing on the meaning and discuss the positions of the authors who have raised some questions concerning the aspects most frequently chosen to focus on content courses. In the next section I present the courses discussed here, which are part of the cultural extension program of a public university in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. I will then discuss the material used for each course and how they were elaborated. The results have indicated that in the elaboration of the teaching materials the focus is exclusively on the content and focus on the linguistic aspects might be lacking in those materials.
content courses; teaching material; focus on form