The Research On Extracurricular Reading Tendency Of Contemporary College Students

As is known to many, reading is an important channel through which people understand society and acquire knowledge as well as a vital means of cultural inheritance. In recent years, constructing a "Scholarly Society" has become one of China’s priorities. With the notion of "Reading for All" put forth, the ideal of "read more and read good books" has widely spread in all walks of life. As builder of the nation’s future and heir of the cultural spirit, college students should not only forge expertise but also enhance their attainments, enrich their spiritual world, and understand ethnic cultures through extracurricular reading. Therefore, it is of crucial importance to know about and well understand the extracurricular reading tendency of contemporary college students. First, through literature review, this study concludes and analyzes the concepts of reading, reading tendency and reading behavior, referring to pertinent theories in cognitive psychology, educational psychology, publishing science, physiology, and library science to design the questionnaire and bio-feedback experiment. With this questionnaire, the researcher surveyed on-campus college students from four higher learning institutions and concluded the manifestations and characteristics of their extracurricular reading tendency in three aspects: reading subject, reading content, and reading environment. In terms of the reading content, 50 students were selected to participate in the related bio-feedback experiment. They were asked to read six extracurricular reading materials, and their SMR, EOG, SCL and other physiological data and evaluation information were collected so as to find the physiological characteristics shown at different levels of interest in the reading and to pinpoint the gender differences in them. Internal causes were concluded, and a more detailed analysis of college students’ reading tendency was conducted by virtue of the manifestations of their reading interest.This study draws the following conclusions.(1) The first reading demand of today’s college students is diversified, showing a general tendency towards demands on recreation and information. Disparities are shown with relation to educational background and gender. In non-fiction works, most attention is paid to books on industrial information and career development. Youth-motivating literature and science fiction are favored by young readers.(2) College students display three subjective reading predilections: they tend to accept unexpected plots, value resonance, and circumvent reading. Their tendency towards fondness of reading and contemplation varies with gender, major, and educational background.(3) College students display some degree of peer effect and TV or film effect in choosing their reading materials.(4) In a natural situation without the external motivations, SMR level can directly reflect the subjects’ reading interest. EOG and SCL can indirectly reflect the subjects’ reading interest and prove that bio-feedback experiments can be used to study subjects’ reading behavior. In terms of internal elements of a work, elements of popular literature, common-life-like language and imaginative creation techniques are more likely to attract college students. Plots that are close to their college life are more possible to arouse their interests. When it comes to the differences in their reading tendency, men are more concerned about the value and connotations of a work, whereas women are sensitive to language style and character image, showing more interest in books about relationships.Last but not least, based on the conclusions, it is suggested that college students’ extracurricular reading tendency should be directed in four aspects: reading environment, reading habits, interest cultivation, and library services.