An Examination of Pleasure Reading Behavior and Attitude of Iranian Advanced EFL Learners

The current study aimed at examining the pleasure reading behavior and attitude of Iranian EFL learners at the advanced level. To achieve the goals of the study, 105 MA learners recruited by convenience sampling participated in this study. They were asked to fill out a questionnaire constructed by Camiciottoli (2001). The findings highlighted that the amount of learners’ pleasure reading in English was average and most of them had positive attitudes towards reading for pleasure in English. However, this study revealed that only some of learners had high reading frequency and positive attitudes. Additionally, the results demonstrated that lack of time was perceived as the most important factor restricting learners’ reading in English while acquiring a wider range of vocabulary, learning about other cultures, and enhancing general literacy were the main motives for Iranian EFL learners to read in English. The findings, also, revealed that past access to English books and the number of native language books read in the past 12 months, were significant predicators of frequency of pleasure English reading while time spent in an English speaking country and the number of native language books read in the past 12 months, were significant predicators of learners’ attitude towards pleasure English reading. Moreover, surprisingly the participants believed that the more time learners spend in an English-speaking country, the less they are interested to find time to read in English for pleasure.