The comparative essay on reading was a challenging task, not only

because I had never done this type of writing before, but also because I

consider that it is especially difficult to produce a text with a classmate. I

tend to enjoy pair and group work but in this case, it was very difficult to

get to an agreement on both opinions and to actually produce the text.

Despite the problems that appeared when writing the essay, I have to

admit that it was a great opportunity to put into practice what we have

been learning in other courses such as communicative competence.

The different viewpoints of Brown (2000) and Harmer (2001) taught me

that we as ESL teachers should be aware that the experience and

previous knowledge of our students are highly important in the moment

of developing second language learning. Moreover, if we truly want to

our students to understand what they are reading, we have to provide

them with suitable texts that are both meaningful and attractive in order

to get their attention and give them the motivation that is missing.

I consider that this unit was very helpful for I consider that the receptive

skills are the first step in the process of language acquisition; hence, we

need to put a lot of effort in this area in order to help our student to

develop an L2.

Camila Cuevas A.