STRENGTHENING OF LANGUAGE SKILLS IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

Introduction: english language proficiency in Spanish-speaking countries has gone from being considered a luxury in the last century to a current need for professional growth. Objective: To consolidate the skills in the English language proficiency of university students. Methods: an emerging program was developed in 143 university students in the first to fifth semesters of the forest engineering and agronomy courses of the Faculty of Natural Resources of the Polytechnic School of Chimborazo. The intervention consisted of initially identifying the students' English language proficiency skills and, based on the results obtained, an emerging program was applied to increase English language proficiency. The McNemar non-parametric test was used to identify changes in English language management skills. Results: average age of 22.62 years with a predominance of students between 18 and 21 years (71.33%), male (51.75%), urban origin (60.14%) and without previous studies of English (69.23%). At the beginning of the investigation, low skill levels predominated, which increased mid-level after the application of the emerging program. Writing and speaking were the skills that showed the most progress, while interpretation proved to be the ability with the most discrete results. Conclusions: the application of the emerging program raised the level of skills of the students of the forest engineering and agronomy careers of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, related to the management of the English language