Estratégias de leitura em manuais de autoestudo preparatórios para o TOEFL® IBT.

Abstract

The TOEFL - Test of English as a Foreign Language – is largely used as a language proficiency evidence or as an entry requirement for north american universities. In this article, we aim to submit to scrutiny reading strategies described in self-study manuals targeted at TOEFL applicants. In order to do so, we carried out a review of literature in which we define what reading strategies and reading abilities are, to later collate these notions to the contents found in the self-study manuals. The analysis shows that, in these, reading strategies are often described as "tips" or "tactics"; among the most frequent and relevant, we find: avoiding bottom-up processing, guessing, skimming and scanning. Thus, the utilitarian and strategic usage of reading is emphasized, and reading for fruition is discouraged.