Improving English Teaching In Senior High School Through Multiple Intelligences

Since the 1990s. American professor Gardner's Multi-intelligence Theory has had an increasing influence upon the world, and also has become the basic theory of the curriculum reforming in many western countries. According to the Multi-intelligence Theory, there are at least seven different types of human intelligence. They are verbal/ linguistic intelligence, logical/mathematical intelligence, visual/spatial intelligence, musical/rhythmic intelligence. bodily/kinesthetic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence and intrapersonal intelligence. Great significance of the theory in education is that teachers cannot simply divide their students into two or three groups according to their test scores. Teachers should try to identify the specialties and characters of the students, and to find the most suitable methods to teach them. If a teacher thinks about students' characteristics and abilities carefully, and makes full use of their potential intelligence of learning English, the maximum efficiency of learning English can be easily accomplished.In the new English textbooks of senior high school, all the units are arranged into 16 topics, such as cultural, custom, traditional festivals, sports, science, environmental protecting, art, transportations ..., quite different from the old ones which were arranged in grammar items. English teachers should have the principles of "teach for Multi-intelligence" and "'teach through Multi-intelligence". The former is the aim of education, while the later is about teaching methods, emphasizing the functions of different intelligence. Only in this way can English teaching embodies the ideals of curriculum reforming and the conceptions of developing all-around and harmoniously.Teachers should also assess the achievements of their students in various ways. They should not judge their achievements only by the scores they get in examinations. In fact, the ability of using the language in practical situations is much more significant. Files coming from multi-aspect observation and assessment can be greatly useful to English teaching designs. Thus make assessments really efficient ways to promoting curriculum reforming.