Reading Strategies in EFL Reading Courses

The interest of this research is focused on a methodological analysis of the reading comprehension courses in EFL at Universidad de Antioquia-Colombia, where more than one hundred reading courses for undergraduate students from all programs that this university offers every semester. The specific problem of this research arises from the fact that the two English reading comprehension syllabi do not propose a concrete methodology. The data was collected from students, teachers and the syllabi, by means of questionnaires, interviews, and direct class observation.This work attempted to look for an alternative that allowed them to unify criteria to define a more effective and integral methodology for those courses. The findings showed that the teachers of the these courses did not handle enough theoretical foundations on the reading field, which became evident in the recurrent misunderstanding of concepts in relation to reading such as strategies, techniques, activities, approaches and methodologies. The conclusions remark that reading comprehension teachers need theoretical foundations to design and develop any EFL reading syllabi.