Discursive skills in college students. An exploratory study with students of Accounting and Administration at University of Sonora

Abstract

This paper presents the first part of an interdisciplinary project realized by instructors of the Written Language Academy in both the Department of Literature and Linguistics and the Accounting Department from University of Sonora. The overall goal is to examine the reading and writing abilities of undergraduate students in the Departments of Accounting, Administration, Administrative Information, and Marketing. Our main concern starts from a group project observation in order to identify difficulties in reading and writing skills of students while taking these programs. Our premise is that reading and writing are essential tools in the learning process, since it is through them that we acquire, build, and rebuild knowledge. The project was planned in four stages: 1) Building of tools to explore reading and writing skills: a survey, a diagnosis test and the obtainment of results from a student sample. 2) Application of the tools to the representative sample. 3) Reviewing and evaluation of results. 4) Proposals for solutions. Up to now we have arrived to the conclusion that the first three stages of the investigation and the diagnosis shows that the evaluated students’ communication skills are not yet good enough and that it is something that must be taken care of soon, above all considering their academic context. We also present here the results obtained and some proposals and strategies to solve problems found.