While-Reading Strategies Used in an Initial Reading and Writing Course

Reading is a term that has different meanings (Nuttall, 1996). It can be understood as identifying written words, or the act of getting information in order to create meaning from what was read (Barnett, 1989). Generally, this activity is practiced with a specific purpose in mind. Depending on the purpose, the way that the information in a text is processed will vary. However, this process can be a difficult task when a person reads a text written in a different language from the mother tongue.This fact was the main difficulty faced by the students of the B.A in English Language, Curriculum 2008 at the University of Veracruz. The purpose of this research was to identify the while-reading strategies some of the students in this group who attended the aforementioned course used to deal with a common reading difficulty, which was dealing with unknown vocabulary, when they were required to read a passage. This research sought, therefore, to gain understanding of this situation by conducting a qualitative case study in which the findings resulting from this investigation can be transformed into suggestions for the educational authorities of the English Language Undergraduate Program.