Pre-service English teachers’ strengths and challenges when reading and writing

• Autores: Angela Yicely Castro Garcés
• Localización: Perspectivas educativas, ISSN-e 2027-3401, Vol. 5, Nº. 1, 2012, págs. 1-20
• Idioma: varios idiomas
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• Resumen

  • Reading scientific or literary works and developing academic writing in English can bring up challenges for students no matter their language proficiency. This article is the result of a research study carried out with a qualitative approach at the B.A. in English at Universidad del Tolima. It aims at illustrating the strengths, challenges, conceptions and expectations of a group of pre-service teachers and at fostering the use of strategies that can help them re-shape their conceptions in a reading and composition class. Different approaches were used in order to help learners reach their goals, including the use of portfolios and metacognitive strategies. At the end, it was evident that most students’ perceptions about reading and writing changed significantly. Students acknowledged that this process helped them change their attitudes and perceptions, value their background knowledge, gain new knowledge, and trust their abilities to become better readers and writers.