Published

2016-01-01

Adult EFL Reading Selection: Influence on Literacy

Procesos de selección de lecturas en estudiantes adultos de inglés como lengua extranjera y su influencia en la habilidad lectora

Keywords:

Behavioral patterns, engagement, motivation, perceptions, reading habits, self-selection (en)
autoselección, compromiso, hábitos de lectura, motivación, patrones de comportamiento, percepciones (es)

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Authors

  • Juan Sebastián Basallo Gómez Universidad el bosque

This paper is about the impact of systematic reading selection used to promote English as foreign language learning in adult students. A qualitative action research methodology was used to carry out this project. Ten class sessions were designed to provide students an opportunity to select texts according to criteria based upon their language levels and personal/professional interests. The findings align with three categories of influence: motivation, engagement, and contextualization/interpretation of readings. The main objective of this project was to see how the students’ text selection processes, guided by systematically designed criteria and elaborated strategies, influenced learning and acquisition in terms of motivation, perceptions, and opinions towards reading in English.

Este artículo aborda el impacto de la selección sistemática de lectura usada para promover el aprendizaje del inglés como lengua extranjera en estudiantes adultos. En este proyecto se utilizó la metodología de investigación-acción cualitativa. Diez sesiones de clase fueron diseñadas proporcionando la oportunidad a los estudiantes para seleccionar textos de acuerdo a criterios basados en el nivel de idioma de los estudiantes y de los intereses personales/profesionales. Los hallazgos son inherentes a tres categorías principales: la motivación, compromiso, contextualización e interpretación de lecturas. El objetivo principal de este proyecto era ver cómo los procesos de selección de textos de los alumnos guiados por criterios destinados y estrategias elaboradas influenciaban el aprendizaje y la adquisición en términos de motivación, percepción y opiniones hacia la lectura en inglés.

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