The Future of Education

The present article reports the results of a pedagogical experience in which the practice of vocabulary strategies helped a group of physiotherapy students at a higher education institution in Colombia improve their reading comprehension skills of scientific articles, regardless of their English level.  Reading academic articles in English is an everyday issue for students in Colombia, and it is expected that they interpret and understand articles thoroughly and effectively in order to produce a relevant analysis of the information presented.  However, not all the students have a level of English that allows them to complete the task successfully.  Hence, it was necessary to design a series of “pre-teaching vocabulary worksheets” that served as a baseline to establish a glossary of technical vocabulary that would support students in further reading of scientific articles.  These worksheets provided students with different vocabulary activities that helped them identify, recognize and understand new words proper of their field of study.  Learning the words in an isolated way became meaningful when students found them in context in the articles they read for their classes. They were able not only to increase the speed when reading scientific articles but also to comprehend them more easily, which was evident through their discussions in class, participations in forums, reviews or articles, and good grades obtained in exams. Additionally, students gained more confidence in themselves, which benefited their academic and professional performance. Undoubtedly, these worksheets demand that teachers devote a considerable amount of time to their design; however, the effort is worthwhile once the positive results are seen.

Keywords: Worksheets, vocabulary, reading comprehension, scientific articles, physiotherapists;