About the Reading Comprehension Course in English
The Reading Comprehension Course in English (CCLLI) is a specialized English reading course offered by the Casa de Cultura Britânica (CCB) of the Federal University of Ceará (UFC). The course is designed to develop and strengthen students’ ability to read and understand texts in English, with particular emphasis on the skills required in academic and professional contexts.
The CCLLI is offered over one academic semester, with a total workload of 64 hours. Throughout the course, students are guided in the development of reading strategies that enable them to approach texts more confidently, identify main ideas and supporting information, understand textual organization, infer meaning from context, and deal effectively with unfamiliar vocabulary and grammatical structures.
A central objective of the CCLLI is to prepare students for the English Reading Comprehension Test and, more broadly, to equip them with the reading skills necessary to work with academic texts in their areas of study. The course therefore focuses not simply on translating texts, but on developing the ability to construct meaning from written English by using appropriate reading strategies and linguistic knowledge.
Students work with a variety of authentic and adapted texts and are encouraged to develop strategies such as skimming and scanning, identifying the main idea and specific information, recognizing reference and cohesion, making inferences, interpreting vocabulary in context, and understanding the relationships between different parts of a text. Attention is also given to grammatical structures and discourse features insofar as they contribute to reading comprehension.
The CCLLI has particular relevance for UFC graduate students who need to fulfill the English proficiency requirement established by their postgraduate programs. The course is currently aimed at students regularly enrolled in stricto sensu postgraduate programs (master’s and doctoral programs) at UFC who have not yet fulfilled the proficiency requirement established by their program’s curriculum.
By combining systematic instruction, reading practice, and the development of effective comprehension strategies, the CCLLI provides students with a structured pathway toward greater independence in reading English. More than a preparatory course, it seeks to give students the tools they need to engage with English-language academic texts with greater confidence, efficiency, and accuracy.
As part of the courses offered by the Casa de Cultura Britânica, the CCLLI complements the CCB’s broader mission of providing high-quality English-language instruction at the Universidade Federal do Ceará.
