The main objective of the study was to analyze the perceptions and reading practices of students of the Bachelor of Arts in Portuguese and English, in the distance modality, in the teaching-learning process in five private universities. The research is qualitative and quantitative, the instrument used for data collection was a semi-structured online questionnaire, in Google Forms, applied to 121 students in the academic year of 2021. The study was theoretically anchored in the new academic literacy studies addressed, among others, by Fischer (2007) Estienne and Carlino (2004), Lea and Street (1998) and Carlino (2013). The study showed that the Bachelor of Arts students recognize the importance of teaching reading and writing in the curricular units, although some initiatives, such as the reading of normative grammar, denote that there is a prevalence of traditional approaches. There is a need for institutions to rethink their curricula to prioritize reading. For this, greater commitment is needed, both on the part of teachers and students.