Reading Speed and Comprehension: Planning the Syllabus at University

The present article analyses the autonomous volume of work of native and foreign students in relation with the amount of time spent reading required texts in different languages. The estimation of time a student spends working on an essential task, as is reading, constitutes one of the most controversial aspects of the European system of credit transfer and accumulation. This research aims to determine what the appropriate number of readings would be, taking into account both the time available for the student and the value assigned to the task in the new European Credit Transfer System. In this sense, we want to provide the students of these new studies in Philology with a comprehensive formation. We have used, then, a methodology oriented toward the obtaining of data on students' speed and comprehension when they face the reading of a text on their own. With this purpose, we measured the reading speed and comprehension of students from the degrees of English and Hispanic Studies at the University of Salamanca during the year 2007-2008. We have made estimates on the length of reading activities that students have to carry out as an autonomous task, so as to take them into consideration when planning the syllabi for new Literature subjects. Finally, we highlight the fact that the implemented test has measured the reading speed and comprehension of exclusively literary texts, all included in the academic programs of the subjects that are presently taught in both degrees at the University of Salamanca.