The Influence Of "Significant Others" On Students' Reading Choice

Significant others are closely associated with students'reading choices. There exist strong influencers to students'reading activities in primary and middle schools. By way of analysis on latent influential subjects behind in students' choice of reading activities, in order to explore who are leaders, sharers, promoter, who are restrictors, disciplines, negative influencers, how their value orientation, emotions, attitudes and cultural preferences have influence on students'choices direction? Which ways these influences are through to intervene students'reading process? What discrepancies or conflicts the others'influences are manifested in different contexts? These include analysis on types of significant others, interaction, subjectivity and context.Firstly, categorical analysis is according to significant others'different roles, locations, as well as interaction. Control-typed significant others are unidirectional control, their domination and interference in students reading are significant, whose mandatory orders easily lead to students'resistant reading behaviors. Affinity-typed significant others have easy get students'recognition because of their cordial, kind attitude, so they have strong influence on student reading activities; Idol-leading type significant others are charismatic leaders because of their individual charisma, attraction, and get a high degree of students'reading identity approbation and imitation. Idol man-made significant others are easy to form students'blind idolatry because of the hype, and generate negative effects, such as popular reading. Significant others'intervention patterns are mainly manifested unidirectional, bidirectional multi-directional interaction and so on. In addition, subjective factors of significant others, such as value orientation, emotions, attitudes, cultural preferences, also have a significant impact on students' reading choices, utilitarian orientation and humanistic orientation, positive emotions and negative emotions, personal cultural preferences and stratum cultural preferences have different effects on students' reading choices, and there are differences in direction of reading choices and the depth, breadth of reading.Secondly, from the perspective of intergenerational differences, analyze the influence of significant others in the Chinese Contemporary History(1949-1999) on students' reading choices, and illustrate differences influence level of significant others in different times, including unidirectional reading under political control, the phenomenon of underground small reading group as well as personal enlightenment. Idol significant others have led modern ethos since1978, influences of the same age Idol(such as young writers)are stronger, as well as a number of significant others groups are appearing, and the opening of the popular reading.Thirdly, discriminate influential effects and differences of many significant others in real situations (schools, families, the media) on students reading, such as the effects of principals'value orientation on the construction of reading culture, the reading recommendation difference among teacher groups, students'group reading interaction have a characteristic of conformity, variability and diversity, latent resistance and manifest conflict in reading, reading assimilation under the guidance of central character. Latent others'best-selling operation in the media situation, sharing reading and peer coaching in network forums, weblogs and so on; parents significant others in the family, their reading guidance and misunderstanding, and associations between their educational aspirations and reading enlightenment and so on.In its conclusion, the paper believes that:1. Significant others present a strong influence upon student's reading activities; especially others'language, emotion as well as attitude make a remarkable effect on students'reading choice. The others'positive emotion contributes some of the main joints connect students'curiosity and awaken their reading desire; while, others' negative and indifferent emotion result in student's interest closure, even converting their reading desire to different way.2. Various types of significant others have clear consequences in student's reading activities, easy lead to reading conflict in some situation, control-typed significant others always cause student's reading resistance or interest transferring. Idolized significant others can bring up their influence strongly and widely; yet media-made idols, however, are prone to cause negative guidance.3. Interactions either among significant others groups or between significant other and student, obviously infect student's reading. Their reading assimilation and promotion will be directly impacted in the situations of close relationship, frequently visit each other and strong interaction between them.4. Student groups themselves are important reading-guiders. The phenomenon of underground small reading group, latent and present reading resistance should be attention. More over, we should concern about the vitally influence of peer groups on the fashion and trend in student's reading activities. In addition to attendant significant others, latent or absent others also impact on student's reading activities. People like publishers, writers, officials and on-line friends are rightly the sources of influence upon student's reading choice.5. Cultural preference of significant others also impacts on student's reading choice. Elder significant others'cultural preferences have firmly transmissibility; while peer groups'preferences have situativity and variability. In different stratums, the middle class has strongest intergenerational transmission of preferences transmissibility.6. There are plenty of important groups significant others impacts on student's reading behavior. Thus, getting together all significant other's forces (include inside and outside school, present and absent others), make them play positive guidance, get them become leader, arouser, promoter, accompanist and sub-reader in student's reading activities are very important.