“Stepping into the world of academic reading in English” Workshop

FILCI stands for Festival de Idiomas, Lenguajes y Culturas de la universidad Icesi, one of the main events related to language in the institution. A series of conferences, workshops, concerts, and different kinds of activities are part of the FILCI to make students aware of the diversity and importance of the language. This version took place on May 3rd and 4th, it took place in several places around the campus, and for most of the activities, students should register to them a week before the event.

A month before the event, the CLIL monitors took on the challenge to create their first workshop that aimed to improve the academic reading skills of the Icesi undergraduate students who were interested. The process consisted of: first, selecting an academic text in which the vocabulary and the purpose of the author were not too complex to understand. Second, creating an active path in which the students while they read can answer the guided questions, in addition, this document included a glossary and a bookmark with some reading tips. Third, through a few revisions with the monitors and FILCI supervisors, some adjustments were made in order to have a well-structured workshop and finish the last details for the event.

On the morning of May 3rd, our monitors Michel Caballero, Danna Salinas, and Felipe Marín were excited as well as nervous about their challenge. Despite the low assistance at the beginning, more students arrived at classroom 408M, it was surprising at the same time how some students were really engaged in the workshop and felt their progress in every step the monitors guided. In the end, it was perceived a high level of satisfaction of everybody, it demonstrated how properly designed was the workshop and the great teaching skills the monitors have, as well as the competencies that the students showed to engage in an English environment in which they can access to more resources and skills.