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This project was conducted in theFundación Universitaria San Martínwith night accounting students who

were coursing sixth semester. They were taking3rd level of English. The purpose of the studywas to improve reading comprehensionthrough the use of some reading strategies.A group of 6 students was chosen because oftheir low level and diff iculties inunderstanding texts in English. Datacollection was conducted usingquestionnaires, teacher’s observation andteacher’s diary. Results showed that studentsmostly liked to read topics related to theirprograms, despite their lack of vocabulary,and they improved reading comprehensionthrough the use of adequate readingstrategies, avoiding the overuse oftranslation.

IntroductionIntroductionIntroductionIntroductionIntroduction

The reader plays an active role in gettingout of the text the message the writer has putinto the text. Understanding a written text meansextracting the required information from it asefficiently as possible (Nuttall:1982). Thepurpose of this study was to improve readingcomprehension through the use of adequatereading strategies. Some reading strategiestaken into account in this project were:skimming, scanning, pointing out the main ideaand supporting details, predicting and deducingmeaning, non-text information and non-verbalinformation (ibid:1982).

Difficulties understanding texts included alack of vocabulary and structure skills as wellas a lack of motivation to read were detected.The former was confronted by implementingthe reading strategies and distributing aquestionnaire after each lesson in order toidentif y strategies to improve readingcomprehension. The latter was worked on bylooking at the reading session in terms of threephases: pre-reading, while-reading and post-reading (Harmer: 1983).

ProcedureProcedureProcedureProcedureProcedure

Since difficulties reading texts in Englishwere detected, it was decided to carry out theresearch project based on implementingdifferent strategies to improve readingcomprehension. This was done from Februaryto May, 2001. A group of 6 students wasselected because of their problemsunderstanding texts in English. Themethodology used for this study was actionresearch. The collection of data was carriedout through techniques such as teacher´sdiary, class observation and a completedquestionnaire after the activities ended.Simple readings about different topics wereprovided the students in order to applyadequate reading strategies e.g looking forspecific information or the general idea of atext; making predictions about the reading andso on. Then students answered a questionnaireto identify the strategies and the steps to befollowed in the activity.

UNDERSTANDING TEXTS IN ENGLISH!

A CHALLENGE

FOR FUTURE PROFESSIONALS

Consuelo López MedinaConsuelo López MedinaConsuelo López MedinaConsuelo López MedinaConsuelo López Medina

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More difficult material over financial andaccounting topics was included to worktechnical vocabulary. Then the questionnairewas handed out and the results analyzed. A finalquestionnaire to get the students advances ordeficiencies in the reading process was filledout in the last class.

ResultsResultsResultsResultsResults

Results of the study were presented in thefollowing qualitative analysis. At the beginningof this research via questionnaires, studentsexpressed their lack of vocabulary and structureskills and the difficulty of understanding a textin English as justification to translate word byword. The second questionnaire answered bystudents showed their preference for technicaltopics related to their interests and majors inspite of their language difficulties as well as theirprogress reading and understanding texts inEnglish after having applied the readingstrategies learnt in class. They were asked aboutwhat they liked most about the text worked inclass. They said the topic because it was relatedto their majors and everybody paid moreattention to the activity.

The questionnaire filled out in the last classto identify progress or deficiencies in the readingprocess showed that most of the studentsevidenced progress in reading comprehensionafter having applied the reading strategies. Theywere asked whether they noticed any progress

during the reading comprehension activities ornot and which aspects contributed more to thesuccessful reading of texts in English. One ofthe students said that he did not feel fear whenfacing a text in Engish now; he did not stopwhen he found an unknown word and hadlearned to read and analyze a text globally.

ConclusionsConclusionsConclusionsConclusionsConclusions

This study showed that when studentsapplied the reading strategies learnt in class,the problem of translating word by word wasavoided. They felt more confident of theirabilities to understand a text in English andthey improved their reading comprehension.

The implementation of selected and usefultexts related to students’ interests andnecessities is a way to motivate them to enjoyreading and improve comprehension.

An interesting activity for further researchcould be the designing of some software to learnvocabulary as a tool to understanding texts inEnglish and improving reading comprehension.

ReferencesReferencesReferencesReferencesReferences

Harmer, J. (1983). The Practice of EnglishLanguage Teaching. London: Longman.

Nutall, C. (1982). Teaching Reading Skillsin a Foreign Language. London: Heinemann.