Perceptions of university students about academic reading

Abstract

This paper analyzes the perceptions of university students regarding academic reading. The text discusses reflections that fourteen students make about reading, considering the meanings of the action of reading at the university, about the main difficulties of the act of reading and about the role of the university in relation to the teaching of academic reading. The main objective of the study is to understand how students define the role of academic university reading, highlighting the meanings, difficulties and contribution of university professors in the task of teaching reading. This is a qualitative study, with the device of collecting information from the written reports of students about three questions that were asked about academic reading at the university. Among the main results, the study allowed us to conclude that the reading perception is close to standards that conceive it as a strategy for decoding and producing meaning. It also showed that the main difficulties are anchored in the formative processes of the basic school and the university. Finally, the study showed that there is a widespread perception among students that university teachers need to develop reading teaching strategies at the university, given the difficulties that students have when entering higher education.