A corpus-based assessment of reading comprehension in English for Tourism studies

This paper describes the follow-up of two groups of ten learners each in an English for Tourism course in Spain. The first group carried out a series of lab activities based on a corpus of short advertising texts, while the second group of students lacked this access to corpus-based work. The written test that both groups took (after the corpus activities) contributes to unveiling some key aspects concerning learners’ reading comprehension strategies, for instance, their capability to integrate content knowledge or schemata with a socio-cultural level in the texts, and their use of pictures and letter size to characterize text type. Such elements significantly varied from one group of students to another. The findings may imply conclusions related to particular university contexts that should be demanded in ESP (English for Specific Purposes): a continuous and intensive formation based on varied activities, and tasks to be developed autonomously and collaboratively, under the supervision of the language instructor. Corpus-based work can fit in adequately in this context, especially when specific language tasks responding to real needs and preferences in the academic and professional milieu are developed.