*Student Attitudes IDENTIFIERS *Reading Behavior

In the early 1990s good readers in low-achieving countries saw reading mostly as a difficult, effortful process while those in high-achieving countries saw reading more as a pleasant, imaginative activity: for them reading was first and foremost enjoyable. This paper attempts to elucidate this concept of reading as enjoyment and tries to determine which aspects of reading behavior contribute to the experience of reading pleasure. After an analysis of 1,537 questionnaires completed by pupils aged 9-18, the paper constructs a model of the relations among 8 aspects of reading behavior, including enjoyment. This model indicates that over 5096 of reading pleasure can be explained by 7 aspects, that is, by the interaction among absorbed attention while reading, reading for distraction or for excitement, processes of imagination, emotion and reminiscence due to reading, and frequency of spontaneous reading behavior. The paper discusses the model and its paths, including weight of contribution of each aspect