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Abstract
There are numerous methods and strategies to teach a target language. Language teachers try to follow those methods that they think are appropriate for their learners. There are teachers who adopt an eclectic approach that is appropriate for their particular ESL/EFL context. This paper attempts to explain the quintessential features of the Multiple Intelligences theory that is now being adapted worldwide to teach English. This paper also attempts to through light on how this theory can be utilized to maximize the teaching-learning process in the English classroom.
Introduction
Howard Gardner introduced his theory of multiple intelligences in the book Frames of Mind (1983). Though he wrote this book as a psychologist, his ideas were picked up by the educators. In the article Reflections on Multiple Intelligences: Myths and Messages (1995) Gardner stated that he “took pleasure from - and was occasionally moved by – the many attempts to institute an MI approach to education in schools and classrooms”. But he did not break the self-imposed silence about the new thoughts concerning the MI theory till 1993, the year in which his publisher issued the tenth edition of Frames of Mind to which he contributed an introductory essay.
It is Gardner’s work with normal and gifted children and with brain-damaged patients that made him realize that the standard view of a single intelligence is wrong. In Frames of Mind he proposed the existence of seven intelligences. Later, he added an eighth intelligence and also discussed the possibility of a ninth intelligence.
Intelligence
Gardner’s conceptualization of intelligence is capacious. It incorporated a variety of skills which are valued in different cultural and historical settings. Gardner extended the meaning of the word ‘intelligence’ beyond its customary stereotypical application in educational psychology. He defined intelligence as “the ability to solve problems, or to create products that are valued within one or more cultural settings” (Gardner 1983).
The Nine Intelligences
According to Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences, each individual has the capability of processing information in nine relatively independent ways using the nine intelligences: verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist and existentialist intelligences. Each individual has a specific profile of intelligences. While some are highly developed in certain intelligences, modestly developed in certain other intelligences, and underdeveloped in the rest of the intelligences, a few like the German poet, statesman, scientist, naturalist and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe are highly developed in most of the intelligences. Gardner’s view is that individuals need not bewail their deficiency in a given area as everyone has the capacity to develop all the intelligences, if needed, to an adequate level of competency.
Gardner has pointed out that the nine intelligences are constantly interacting with each other and that no intelligence exists by itself. He has described the nine intelligences separately only for describing their specific features so that they can be developed effectively by any individual. Gardner has also demonstrated through his MI theory that there are umpteen number of ways in which an individual may show his gifts within each category of intelligences. Gardner’s theory is really inclusive in that he has shown the endless possibilities that each individual, with his/her own individual profile of intelligences, can explore in this world.
Educational Implications
As his original work was not about education, Gardner had not provided guidelines about how the MI theory might be applied in the classroom. Gardner and his colleagues started exploring the educational implications of the theory only when they found that the educational practitioners all over the world used the theory as a pretext for implementing the changes that they felt were desirable in their respective educational institutions. They launched their own pilot and model programs and meticulously monitored the experiments that were carried out in the classrooms. All these experiments gave Gardner a firm grasp of the educational implications of MI theory. What he deciphered from these experiments is that “‘deep applications of the theory’ ought to bring about a different way of thinking about children and their education” (Gardner 1995). He learned that:
1) MI approach entails a careful description of what the child is like intellectually and the planning of an education program appropriate for that child.
2) MI approach posits materials that draw on a range of intelligences, including both disciplinary and interdisciplinary areas of study.
3) MI approach favors multiple means of assessment, going well beyond standard "language-logic instruments" and giving each child the opportunity to exhibit what he or she has learned or understood. (ibid)
Finding Learner’s Preferred Intelligences
Each individual starts showing what Gardner calls “proclivities” towards certain intelligences even as a small kid. Teachers should find out each learner’s most developed intelligences so that learners can be taught through their most preferred intelligences in the limited time available in the classroom and can be given projects and assignments according to their preferences. Each learner may have strengths in several areas and so teachers should avoid pigeonholing a learner as having only one of the nine intelligences. The best tool to decipher the preferred intelligences of each student is classroom observation. Thomas Armstrong’s view is that a teacher can find out the learners’ intelligences by keenly observing their behavioral patterns. For instance, a learner with highly developed bodily-kinesthetic intelligence will be always fidgeting in class. The kind of activities the learners engage themselves with during their free time also indicates their best ways to learn effectively. Teachers should record their observations in a notebook, diary or journal. Teachers can also use a checklist to organize their observations of a student’s intelligences. Another way is to document what is observed in the classroom using a camera or mobile phone, or by keeping samples of their work. Teachers can also find out the learner’s intelligences by using school records, talking to parents and other teachers, talking to students, and by using MI activities in the classroom.
MI in the English Classroom
English classes are gradually ceasing to be the teacher-centered classrooms with passive learners as the materials developers are trying to develop materials which are different from the traditional course books with stock examination type comprehension questions. Attempts are being made by the materials developers to incorporate activities which demand more teacher-learner and learner-learner interaction. Though there are no parallel changes in the testing system, the changes in the kind of course books being prescribed for the learners can be seen as a harbinger of the changes that are desirable and yet to be made in EFL/ESL contexts.
One such desirable change that is to be made is giving prime importance to the individual differences among the learners. Instead of categorizing the learners as above average, average or below average learners and giving attention to them accordingly, teachers can utilize the strengths of the learners to motivate them to acquire the target language, English. MI theory can be used to develop tasks that are appropriate for the learners who come to the class with their own individual strengths, that is, ‘intelligences’.
Tasks that draw on the preferred intelligences of the learners can be developed by the teachers after gaining an idea about the intelligences of each learner in the classroom. The following table which is included in the book Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (2001) provides a general idea about the kind of MI activities that can be carried out in the English classroom:
Table 1: Taxonomy of Language-Learning Activities for Multiple Intelligences
Linguistic Intelligence
lectures student speeches
small- and large- group discussions story telling
books debates
worksheets journal keeping
word games memorizing
listening to cassettes or talking books using word processors
publishing (creating class newspapers or
collections of writing)
Logical/Mathematical Intelligence
scientific demonstrations creating codes
logic problems and puzzles story problems
science thinking calculations
logical-sequential presentation of subject matter
Spatial Intelligence
charts, maps, diagrams visualization
videos, slides, movies photography
art and other pictures using mind maps
imaginative story telling painting or collage
graphic organizers optical illusions
telescopes, microscopes student drawings
visual awareness activities
Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence
creative movement hands-on activities
Mother-may-I? field trips
cooking and other “mess” activities mime
role plays
Musical Intelligence
playing recorded music singing
playing live music (piano, guitar) group singing
music appreciation mood music
student-made instruments Jazz Chants
Interpersonal Intelligence
cooperative groups conflict mediation
peer teaching board games
group brainstorming pair work
Intrapersonal Intelligence
independent student work reflective learning
individualized projects journal keeping
options for home work interest centers
inventories and checklists self-esteem journals
personal journal keeping goal setting
self-teaching/programmed instruction
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The following section presents a general idea about the type of MI tasks that can be used in the English classroom.
MI Tasks for the English Classroom
Learners with highly developed linguistic intelligence can be asked to write stories or short plays using picture cues or other prompts. Teachers can then make them read their stories and do role plays, with proper voice modulation. This task is useful not only for the learners doing the task but also for the other learners as they will be listening to the plays or stories. Another task that can be used as a group or whole class activity is brainstorming and making the learners expand the ideas orally or in writing. Teachers can use tape recorders or other audio recording devices as tools to develop listening and speaking tasks like making the learners listen to a discussion or a lecture and then making them speak about what they have heard. Teachers can also encourage learners to keep a personal journal where they can write anything that is related to the topics discussed in class and make the learners read it out in the class. This journal can also be used to tap all intelligences by allowing learners to draw, stick pictures or jot down anything that they would like to do in the classroom. This can be periodically checked by the teacher to find out the hidden strengths of the learners and to motivate them by discussing in the classroom about the innovative and creative ideas that the students have written in the journals.
Conclusion
Learners come to the educational institutions with their own preferred intelligences. Instead of focusing on the specific intelligence (linguistic) that is necessary to fare well in the language tests language teachers can try to develop the linguistic competence of the learners using learners’ other developed intelligences. Multiple Intelligences theory can be used by the English teachers to develop language tasks with which they can motivate the learners to learn the language using their strengths.
I am winding up this paper hoping that this paper will help the teachers to develop language tasks that will in turn help the learners to improve their proficiency in English.
Bibliography
- Armstrong, T. Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1994. Print.
- Campbell, L., Campbell, B., and Dickinson, D. Teaching and Learning through Multiple Intelligences. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1996. Print.
- Gardner, H. Frames of Mind. New York: Basic Books, 1983. Print.
- Gardner, H. ““Multiple Intelligences” as a Catalyst”. The English Journal 84.8 (1995): 16-18. JSTOR. Web. 23 February 2013.
- Gardner, H. Multiple intelligences: the Theory into Practice. New York: Basic Books, 1993. Print.
- Gardner, H. “Reflections on Multiple Intelligences: Myths and Messages”. Phi Delta Kappan 77.3 (1995): 200-203, 206-209. JSTOR. Web. 27 February 2013.
- Gardner, H., and Hatch, T. “Multiple Intelligences Go to School: Educational Implications of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences”. Educational Researcher 18.8 (1989): 4-10. JSTOR. Web. 19 February 2013.
- Richards, Jack C and Rodgers, Theodore S. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Print.
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