This study proposes an analysis and comparison of the reading comprehension process in literate students who learned literacy when adults and those who learned literacy when they were children. A total of 49 students participated in this research: literate adults, male, aged over 18 years, attending public or private institutions. From those, 29 students became literate while children (group AC) and the other 20 were students who became literate when adults (group AA) that were attendants of the first segment of an elementary school class for the youth and adults. There were three stages: the pre-test, in which both groups after reading a text, answered a questionnaire and only those who were less than 50% correct participated in the intervention and post-test. In the intervention stage, low skilled readers produced a roadmap to improve the understanding of texts under the researcher guidance. In the post-test, these same participants answered a new questionnaire after reading a new text. The comparisons between the results of pre- and post-test showed that the low skilled readers improved their performance levels in reading comprehension, especially in the macrostructure and argumentation.
texts understanding; language; reader students
