Something I have to keep reminding myself is that language learning courses can often look quite different from more purely content-focused courses. Language learning sometimes has a content focus and would then work similarly to other content-based courses. As the name suggests, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), for instance, integrates language learning and content. Students may also be enrolled in academic preparation courses in which they will develop academic English skills / knowledge such as the conventions of academic writing, which would be more content-focussed.
But general ESL courses are different since what the learners are learning is the language itself--i.e. the means of conveying information about content. We do focus on content in order to have something to express using language, but the content is often not what students need to learn. They normally will not need to be tested on, or demonstrate mastery of, the content they have explored in class / in their learning process. Instead, if anything, we need to see evidence of 'mastery' of the language itself. There are exceptions to this of course.
Another difference is that people learn languages differently than they learn content. They can study and learn about the language, its grammar, vocabulary, functional language (e.g. chunks of language used to make a complaint or a suggestion) but the end goal is to 'acquire' the language. This is a subconscious process by which the brain absorbs the language so that they're able to use it without thinking too much about it, similar to what happens when they use their first language.
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