Introduction:

This article reports the progress and challenges observed by a team of professors involved in the teaching of academic reading and writing at the beginning of professional training in the Medicine undergraduate program at Universidad Industrial de Santander, using a genre-based approach.

Objective:

To analyze the reorientation of the curricular design as well as the educational decisions made by professors of the subject, Taller de Lenguaje, taught during the first semester of 2020 and 2021.

Methodology:

The present study is guided by the reflection-on-action model for pedagogical research, teaching design, and professional training.

Analysis and results:

Students were introduced to their disciplinary culture by means of specialized vocabulary and initial contact with medical terminology and its scientific discourse. Regarding the reading practice, the research article was addressed along with the abstract as one of its components. In turn, students wrote training genres such as glossaries and annotated bibliographies. Specific issues related to academic writing such as the use of reported speech and punctuation marks were studied in parallel to the production of such genres.

Conclusions:

The main progress with the implemented pedagogy lies in the relevance of the chosen texts and the linguistic knowledge made available for the professional training of first year students. The current curriculum integrates the teaching of general competences related to practices, genres, and normative aspects of academic communication, with the teaching of specific skills to read and write texts particular to each discipline. Finally, challenges arise as to the articulation of approaches among professors in charge of Taller de Lenguaje and professors from the Faculty of Medicine, or as to the assessment of the impact of Taller de Lenguaje by means of subject-oriented indicators.