Selection of Relevant Information: a Challenge for Reading EAP Courses

Authors

  • Angela Cristina de Oliveira Corte Universidade de São Paulo-FFLCH-Centro de Línguas/Serviço Nacional de Aprendizagem Industrial, São Paulo, Brasil
  • Cynthia Regina Fischer Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de São Paulo/Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo-GEALIN/Centro Universitário da FECAP - Fundação Escola de Comércio Álvares Penteado, São Paulo, Brasil

Keywords:

EAP, reading, selectivity, material development

Abstract

Students show great diffi culty in selecting relevant information in accordance to their reading purpose in our English for Academic Purpose reading classes, revealing problems to distinguish important information from irrelevant information. This diffi culty tends to be more evident when they work with longer texts. Therefore, we have developed some materials to help students select relevant information from texts. This article aims at presenting the procedures and decisions underlying the design of our material as well as a sample of the tasks we have elaborated to improve the students’ selectivity and fl exibility skills.