Abstract:

In Italy, in the year of the pandemic (2020), the number of book readers increased for the first time in more than a decade (ISTAT, 2022). There are 41.4% of people over the age of 6 who have read at least one book for reasons other than strictly school or work in the 12 months prior to the interview (+1.4 percentage points compared to 2019). The highest share is concentrated in girls in the 11-14 age group. The most significant decline is shown from the age of 19.

In order to counter the phenomenon of disaffection with reading and functional illiteracy (UNESCO, 2017), with the aim of qualifying the learning process in higher education contexts, it is considered appropriate to prepare effective interventions aimed at consolidating the profile of the adult reader. Many researches find that, even at the university level, a large number of students manifest gaps in basic skills, showing difficulties in their ability to comprehend texts (Moretti et al., 2015; Rosa & Trufelli, 2019; Castellana & Lucisano, 2021; Campagnolo, 2022).

Considering the positive circularity between reading comprehension and reading pleasure, the aim of the present research was to identify useful tools to detect information about the profile of the adult student reader. The exploratory research involved 92 undergraduate students, aged between 19 and 27, attending the Department of Education at the University of Roma Tre. The research involved the use of two main tools: a semistructured questionnaire to collect both quantitative and qualitative data on one's reading habits and to deep reading motivation; an internationally validated scale, the Literary Response Questionnaire (LRQ) by Miall & Don Kuiken (1995), that measure different aspects of readers' orientation toward literary texts.

The paper presents the results of the exploratory research that identified some tools that can be introduced in the university context to help students consciously reflect on the development of their reading skills.

Keywords:

Adult readers, exploratory research, reading comprehension, reading motivation, reading pleasure.