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This paper is aimed at presenting a summary of the experiences that various Latin-American universities have had within the field of academic writing. We shall focus on three countries: Argentina, Mexico and Venezuela. All of the studies and proposals mentioned in this paper refer to the undergraduate students’ deficiencies in text reading and writing. In this regard, university professors commonly express the view that undergraduate students perform these tasks in an unsatisfactory manner and that some action should therefore be taken in order to overcome this situation. At the same time, it is still a fact that linguistic training is not considered part of the teacher’s work. However, a new trend has been emerging in Latin America in the last years trying to overcome such conceptions of language pedagogy at university level. One of the most widespread ideas is that undergraduate students should start critically using the discourse of the scientific community and of the discipline. In the new proposals of literacy teaching presented here the teacher plays a key role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]