The purpose of this stucty was to reflect upon the teaching of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), focusing on reading, as well as to help readers with the construction of meaning through the use of visual components. Having our theoretical basis centered mainly on Swales (1990): Soares (1993): Bronckart (1999); Joly (2002); Santaella (1983, 2000); Magno e Silva (2002, 2004); and Field (2004), we carried out a descriptive study of the semiotic-discursive features of computer users manuals, focused on the use of images. Therefore, data was collected and pedagogical proceclures were described based on the observations taken in a group of undergraduate ESP students of the Computer Networks Course at Faculdade de Tecnologica da Amazônia (FAZ) a technological college in Belém. Our action-research also aimed at investigating to what extent the non-verbal elements can influence readers in their reading choices; how these elements can be used to lead readers to meaning durring all the phases of lhe reading process (pre/ while / post reading); and the importance of the visual components in the reading of softwares manuals. The data analysis results have shown that the visual components are excellent tools, when associated with words and used appropriately. Such procedures can incentive and ease the reading processing, especiailly in contexts in which lhe participants are not proficient enough in lhe target language.
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