Objective:

In foreign language classes, students are still facing learning difficulties caused by their insufficient lexical repertoire. This paper is aimed at describing active methods and procedures for the use of elective reading as a macro skill to favor the lexical enrichment of students in English for specific purposes.

Methods:

The researchers make extensive use of documentary analysis, systematization of the teaching practice and modeling in constructing a theoretical framework and devising new methods and procedures.

Results:

The result comes from a larger study and its essential contribution is the foundation and description of a method for lexical enrichment in English based on elective reading. General and specific procedures to be used and communicative tasks to be carried out in real or simulated contexts are also illustrated.

Conclusions:

The lexical enrichment in English is achieved from an essentially interactive and integrative reader process that relates the production and reception of texts to authentic sociocultural contexts. The proposed method encourages the understanding of the unknown lexicon present in the texts freely chosen by the students, its analysis from the students’ personal references and professional interests and the construction of meanings in real or simulated contexts of application.

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