The difficulty in deiimiting the contents of Cultural Studies forced the departments of modern languages to establish a more tangible teaching alternative. Teachers in those departments acknowledged that the students in their programs shouid learn about the cultural practices of the countries they were studying, besides the traditional literary and linguistic subjects. Their primary objective was to keep the new subject cióse enough to Cultural Studies, but equipped with a set of objectives and

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... contents, and a methodology which Cultural Studies lacked. The result was the creation of 'History and Culture' or Área Studies. Yet, this new subject has remained a minor área within the teaching of Modern Philology. This paper will try to evalúate the subject 'History and Culture of English-speaking Countries' from three perspectives: (1) in its relation to Cultural Studies; (2) through its defínition as a subject in the curriculum of modern languages teaching; and (3) pointing out its objectives, contents and methodology. The purpose of this work is, thus, to make the public acquainted with the 'so-called' third pillar of modern languages teaching; and more specifically, with the third pillar of English Philology.