The Application Of Multiple Intelligences Theory To Task-based Language Teaching

Nowadays calling for the education full of wisdom and cultivating students full of individuality have already become the theme of educational reform in our country. How can we make every student with different gifts get full development suitable for their own specialties? Gardner's multiple intelligences (MI) theory offers us a new perspective to think about this question. It also benefits teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) much. Recently, although task-based language teaching (TBLT) has become the mainstream method in language teaching due to its strong theoretical foundation and advanced teaching concepts, some problems gradually come out with the implementation of TBLT in China widely (e.g. some students have low participation in TBLT classroom;the authenticity and the educational goals of the tasks are hard to unify, etc). Can we apply MI theory to TBLT? Can MI theory play a unique role in optimizing TBLT? How can we integrate MI theory with the factors in TBLT classroom? It is worthwhile exploring these issues. Hence, the present research undertaken by the author is both valuable and practical.A retrospect of the research on TBLT at home and abroad shows that most scholars focus on tasks, mainly involving types, features, design principles and implementation frameworks. Few studies are made on learners (task executants), especially with few effective researches on TBLT based on individual intelligent differences. This thesis, from the new perspective of MI, aims to probe into TBLT so as to explore a new way for fostering a TBLT model. The author attempts to explore the integration of MI theory with TBLT in five aspects and summarize some steps to apply MI to TBLT classroom: (1) introduce MI theory to students and their teachers;(2) use MI inventories to identify students' intelligenceprofiles and their teachers';(3) construct an MI learning environment for TBLT, including creating a relaxed classroom atmosphere, setting up learning centers, organizing TBLT classroom based on MI, and fully using advanced information technology;(4) design and select appropriate classroom activities/tasks according to students' multiple intelligences, and then use ELT multiple intelligences weekly/monthly checklist to keep track of different activities/tasks conducted in the class;(5) use various assessments based on MI in TBLT classroom instead of only pen-paper tests.To probe deeper into the application of MI theory, the author has conducted an empirical research in an attempt to find out how practicable it is to use MI theory in TBLT classroom. This research project follows both quantitative and qualitative approaches, in which surveys and the experiment study have been analyzed to explore the application of MI theory to TBLT classroom. The results of the analysis on this study have shown that the effect of applying MI theory to TBLT classroom is positive: (1) MI theory can enhance students' participation in TBLT classroom;(2) MI theory can motivate students to learn English;(3) MI theory can improve students' English grades to some degree, both effective to excellent and average students (in terms of their scores).Due to the limitations of research period and the small sample size as well as the designing of questionnaires, researchers need to conduct further research in this area and bring the potential of MI theory into full play.