Multiple Intelligence and Foreign Language Learning

  In the language classroom problem-solving tasks are useful as learners focus mainly on meaning, but through constant rereading of the text to solve the problem, they acquire a familiarity with the vocabulary and structures used.

 

 

2.4. The bodily-kinesthetic frame

This intelligence refers to the ability to use the body to express oneself, to handle physical objects dexterously. According to the ancient Roman saying, men sane in corpora sane; working on this intelligence not only affects health and fitness but also is important for cultivating the powers of the mind. In many classrooms, students sit in rows for hours and are asked to pay attention to verbal input. The human need for movement is totally overlooked and therefore, its potential value for creating higher energy levels and maintaining attention is greatly reduced. Phenix explains the importance of movement in every human activity:

 

To be alive is to be able to respond-to be moved and to move. All perceptions of the surrounding world are accompanied by motor reactions. Every experience, whether primarily of feeling, thought, or volition, engages the whole person, including the interconnected system of muscles, nerves, bones, tissues, organs, and internal secretions. No instrument is as elaborative, sensitive, and intimately responsive as the human body. This is why the arts of movement are so important for the expression and perception of human meaning.

                                                                                                   Phenix (1964: 165)

The use of role-plays, drama, games, project work, shadow puppets, and many activities related to group dynamics directly address the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence in the language classroom.

Non-verbal aspects of communication are also very relevant in language teaching. For example, gestures are movements of the body used to communicate an idea, intention or feeling.

Speech-independent gestures (emblems) or autonomous gestures are nonverbal acts that can replace speech or help to organize the flow and rhythm of interaction and to maintain attention by adding emphasis. Gestures are culture-bound and need to be taught in the second language classroom. The use of video-recorded interactions to observe kinesics behavior is an option proposed by Kellerman to improve listening comprehension skills.

2.5. The interpersonal frame

The ability to understand other people, to work cooperatively and to communicate effectively is part of the interpersonal intelligence and strongly connected to learning a second language. Language learning is a social process which has as a main goal the development of communicative competence. The interpersonal intelligence is connected to the ability to harmonize with others, to understand their perspectives and opinions, but also to convince others in order to achieve personal objectives.

Social constructivism in education stresses the importance of interaction of the participants in the learning situation. Vygotsky emphasized that learning is mediated or shaped and influenced by social interaction; as Dornÿei & Murphey explain, “from a Vygotskian constructivist point of view, learning happens intermentaliy first, between minds in interaction, and only later becomes one’s own learning, intramentally”.

          Cooperative   Learning   is   a   method   which   helps   to   develop   this   intelligence   in   the language classroom. Using a series of specific structures which foment positive interdependence, students in small groups interact and cooperate to carry out different tasks. This socializing approach to language learning in the classroom leads to the development of verbal negotiation strategies to convince others or even to understand the others’ point of view. Crandall points out how it is useful in competitive societies “where it can help foster the development of social skills needed to interact and communicate equitably with diverse groups of people”.

Within the interpersonal frame we can incorporate “active listening” strategies which contribute to establish rapport in a communicative situation. Active listening is directly related to empathy, which has been defined as the process of “putting yourself into someone else’s shoes”; it helps students to recognize that their way is not the only way and possibly not even the best way. Empathy developed through group activities helps to create a relaxed classroom atmosphere where learners can feel more self-confident and willing to speak in the target language.

2.7. The intrapersonal frame

The intrapersonal intelligence gives us the capacity to understand the internal aspects of the self and to practice self-discipline. It can be related to studies about metacognitive knowledge and language learning, where metacognition refers to knowledge about oneself, about the language and about the procedures or strategies to be used for certain types of tasks. Knowing personal capacities and limitations in order to optimize personal performance is precisely one of the milestones of learning styles research applied to language learning and learning style assessment is a useful tool for language learners to “identify their preferred learning styles and stretch those styles by examining and practicing various learning strategies”. As an important part of learning how to learn, metacognition not only takes in knowledge of our mental processes but also involves “knowledge of factors relating to the self, and the way in which these affect the use of cognitive process. Thus an awareness of one’s personality, feelings, motivation and attitudes and learning style at any particular moment would be included within such a concept of metacognitive awareness”.

Self-discipline is based on three metacognitive abilities: that of the perception of personal emotions, the ability to control them and the talent for motivating the self. Identifying personal emotions and reflecting upon what is causing them constitutes the first step to learn self-control. In psychological and educational literature, the efforts to guide thoughts, feelings, and actions toward the attainment of one’s goals has been studied by self-regulation theories which affirm that motivational, cognitive, and performance outcomes are influenced by goal orientation.

Language learning tasks such as asking learners to think of the color, size, texture which best expresses their feelings, or the use of a questionnaire that helps them to be aware of their “self-talk” or reading activities where students develop their attitudes towards a problem are examples of how to work on the intrapersonal intelligence in the language classroom.

2.8. The naturalistic frame

The ability to discriminate among numerous species of flora and fauna, enjoyment of the natural world and ecological sensitivity are characteristics of the naturalist intelligence, one of the two intelligences which Gardner included after his original formulation but which have not yet been developed extensively in the classroom. Activities such as brainstorming on how to contaminate less, or describing the process of recycling paper or tasks involving direct field observation and classification of the vegetal and animal world relate to the naturalist intelligence.

Semantic maps relating to nature can be created to develop learners’ lexical knowledge. Tasks that develop sensitivity towards the natural world can be incorporated; for example, learners can describe a scene in nature that they are familiar with or that they imagine.

3. CONCLUSION

In the second language classroom it is possible to motivate learners by activating multiple ways of meaning-making through the use of tasks relating to the different intelligences. Providing a variety of language activities that stimulate the different tools or intelligences proposed by Gardner makes it possible to engage multiple memory pathways necessary to produce sustained deep learning.

It is not a question of addressing all the individual MI profiles of each learner in every language class but of offering a balanced approach where different “windows on the same concept” are incorporated. As Schumann explains, one of the dimensions along which stimulus appraisals are made — and motivation is determined — is coping potential. Learners’ belief about their ability to participate successfully in a language task can be influenced by the way teachers’ present material to their students and the steps followed to involve them in language learning influence. MIT framework is a useful tool for planning language learning tasks which insure that students can cope in the presence of challenge. When learners see what they can do, this has a positive effect on their self-esteem and can lead to enhancing success in language learning.

The possibilities of MIT improving academic results in different disciplines such as foreign language teaching have been discussed in many forums. Beyond this, however, ideally learning in any classroom will involve personal development and growth in all human dimensions. For this reason, in today’s language classroom it is not enough solely to promote linguistic competence or even communicative competence. Gardner explains the social advantages inherent in the application of his theory:

                               It is of the utmost importance that we recognize and nurture all the varied human intelligences, and all of the combinations of intelligences. We are all so different largely because we all have different combinations of intelligences. If we recognize this, I think we will have at least a better chance of dealing appropriately with the many problems that we face in the world.

If we can mobilize the spectrum of human abilities, not only will people feel better about themselves and more competent; it is even possible that they will also feel more engaged and better able to join the rest of the world community in working for the broader good.

 

Society is demanding citizens who have developed multilingual knowing-how-to-listen and how-to-talk abilities, who are capable of setting and achieving personal goals, who know how to search for information necessary to continue learning beyond the classroom, who know how to work cooperatively — in general, citizens who are efficient and who know how to solve multiple problems in any given context, and using MIT in the language classroom can help to promote these goals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"To respect the many differences between people"

Howard Gardner

 

What about me, I think to know multiple intelligences, especially for teachers, very-very significant because by identifying what pupils’ multiple intelligences are, and their learning preferences, teachers are able to plan gripping lessons, personalize learning and differentiate to pupils’ strengths, which makes learning much more memorable.

I am a future teacher!

And now imagine that I have a class and know multiple intelligences of all my pupils. This information will give me a much fuller picture what my pupils can do, and a broader framework for judging what they have done in class. Also MI theory challenges me to notice various talents and inclinations that pupils show on my lessons, and to present material in ways that take these strengths into account. And these help me capture pupils’ attention in different ways and maintain it for learning.

Now let’s imagine that I have a lesson with primary children and we learn new words in English. My task is to present a material in such way that engages most or all of the intelligences. But I must take into account that everyone is born possessing the seven intelligences, nevertheless, all students will come into the classroom with different sets of developed intelligences

I asked some particular students, who are artistic, to act out those words. This is an inroad into having them participate in the lesson. And this acting helps to understand new words not only those particular pupils, but also to other pupils, because their artwork further explained to them some of the new words that I was trying to get across in class.

But I have other multiple intelligences in my class, so I asked pupils to make their own story with new words (linguistic, intrapersonal intelligence); also I asked to make these words from plasticine or clay (spatial/artistic intelligence); may be I asked pupils to observe those new words in the nature (naturalistic intelligence). And I asked my pupils to act a play (they write by their own) with new words (bodily-kinesthetic intelligence). Giving my pupils tasks for each particular intelligence, I though develop all types of intelligences in each pupil.

I think if students be aware of their strengths and understand how they can use their strengths; this will help them in problem-solving situations. The very important things are self-awareness and sensitivity to others. It's so easy to go through school thinking simply that some kids are bright and others are stupid. But if students stopped for a moment and realized that people are intelligent in different ways, I think it would have a positive influence not only on their self image but also on the people around them.

 TEACHER MUST KNOW INTELLIGENCES OF HIS/HER STUDENTS AND DEMONSTRATE THEM THEIR STRONGER INTELLIGENCE TO MAKE STUDENTS SUCSESSFULL IN THEIR FUTURE LIFE (students should be aware of their own learning styles, preferences and strengths and use them for their advantage!)

 

Yesterday’s classroom is not meeting the needs of today’s students – always remember this statement to make your lesson perfect!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REFERENCES:

 

http://florc.osu.edu/Bestpractices/bestpractices_MultiIntelligences.htm

 

http://www2.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr054.shtml

 

• Canale, M.& M. Swain (1980), “Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing”, Applied Linguistics,  1:1-47.
• Carroll, J. B.(1991). Cognitive abilities in foreign language aptitude: then and now. In T. Parry & C. Stansfield (Eds.) Language aptitude reconsidered. (pp. 11-29). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
• Christison M.A. (1996).  Teaching and learning languages through multiple intelligences.       TESOL Journal, 6 (1), 10-14.
• Christison, M.A. (1998). Applying Multiple Intelligences Theory in pre-service and in-service TEFL education programs. English Teaching Forum, April-June: 3-13.
• Christison,   M.A.   (1999a). A guidebook for applying multiple intelligences theory in the ESL/EFL classroom. Burlingame, CA: Alta Book Center.
• Ehrman, M. (1996). Understanding second language learning difficulties. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Fasko, D. (2001). An analysis of multiple intelligences theory and its use with the gifted and talented. Roeper Review, Vol. 23 (3), 126-131.
• Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind. The theory of multiple intelligences. New York. Basic Books.
• Gardner, H. (1991). The unschooled mind: How children think, and how Schools should teach. New York: Basic Books.
• Gardner, H. (1993). Frames of the mind: The theory of multiple intelligences 10th Anniversary Edition. New York: Basic Books.
• Gardner, H. (1997). Extraordinary minds: Portraits of exceptional individuals and an examination of our extraordinariness. New York: Basic Books.
• Gardner, H. (1999a). Intelligence reframed. Multiple intelligences for the 21st century. New York: Basic Books.
• Gardner, H. (1999b). Are there additional intelligences? The case for naturalist, spiritual, and existential intelligences. In J. Kane (Ed.), Education, information and transformation (pp.  111-131). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
• Gardner, R. & W. E. Lambert. (1972). Attitudes and motivation in second language learning. Rowley: Newbury House Publishers.
• Kellerman, S. (1992). ‘I see what you mean’: The role of kinesics behavior in listening, and implications for foreign and second language learning. Applied Linguistics 13,3: 239-258
• Knapp, M.L. & J.A. Hall. (1992) (3rd.edition). Nonverbal communication in human interaction.  San Diego: Harcourt Brace College Publishers.
• Lozanov, G. & E. Gateva. (1988). The foreign language teacher’s Suggestopedic manual.  New York: Gordon and Breach.
• Medina, S. L. (1990). The effects of music upon second language vocabulary acquisition. Paper presented in TESOL, San Francisco, California.
• Nolen, J. L. (2003). Multiple intelligences in the classroom. Education; Vol. 124  
• Pintrich, P. R. (2000). Multiple goals, multiple pathways: The role of goal orientation in learning and achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92(3), 544-555.
• Reid, J. (Ed). (1995). Learning styles in the ESL/EFL classroom. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
• Reid, J. (Ed). (1998). Understanding learning styles in the second language classroom. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents.
• Reid, J. (1999).  Affect in the classroom: problems, politics, and pragmatics.  In J. Arnold (Ed.) Affect in language learning (pp. 297-306). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Richards, J. & T. Rodgers. (2001). Approaches and methods in language teaching.   Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.