Inglês instrumental na universidade: a experiência de trabalhar, em uma mesma sala de aula, com um público de diversas áreas

Abstract

English for Specific Purpose (ESP) demands a needs analysis, in order to get to know which abilities the students need to improve. ESP focusing on academic reading became a mandatory subject for all the students from the first periods among the twenties courses offered by a public university. The central question comes to be that the students from different linguistic background and area of knowledge are put in the same classroom and the professor has to deal with it preparing the appropriated material. The challenge though is to improve their reading ability, even though they are not reading text in their expertise area without motivating frustration and taking care with the relation among reader, text and context. In this article we are going to present some alternatives used to minimize the presented diversity. The results have been positive in a way that the students are realizing that the ESP teaching and learning processes have different characteristics comparing with the processes used in the language courses, and that they demand an autonomous attitude on the part of the learners.