Challenges in understanding of texts in Spanish as a foreign language: knowledges and reflexions

Abstract

The act of reading is a language processing that occurs in a complex way and in different ways depending on the reader. In this perspective, the present study has as main objective to analyze the comprehension of texts in Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) with students from four public schools in the city of Aracaju, Sergipe. The theoretical assumptions of the work are based on Kleiman (1998), Solé (1998), Koch (2003), Alliende e Condemarín (2005), Marcuschi (2008), among others. Therefore, five reading workshops with different textual genres were used to evaluate literal and inferential comprehension; Verify reorganization, evaluation and critical reading; and to compare the difficulties encountered in understanding between genders. Barret's taxonomy was used as a reference for the analysis of reading activities, which enabled the description of factors that may interfere in this process, facilitating or hindering the work of the reader who presents difficulties in comprehension. With the data obtained, it was possible to verify that the theme dealt in the text, the genre, the language used, and the previous knowledge influence the reader process. However, these aspects have raised some questions about the limited understanding of some students who, because they are in high school, should demonstrate more ability in understanding the themes and genres that are beyond their experiences. Given this, it was recognized the importance of an extended and contextualized reading work in the school context, as this will contribute to the reader being able to travel in different communicative contexts more effectively.