A Multiple Intelligences Based Approach To English Language Teaching In Junior High Middle School

At the beginning of the 1990's, our country had advocated"quality education"and made it the aim of educational reform of China. Coincidentally, the Chinese translated version of Gardner's Multiple Intelligences (MI) was published in 1999. It was recognized that the Multiple Intelligences theory and the Chinese educational reform had many similar views on all-around developments of students. The results of English teaching in China are not satisfactory. Many students feel English learning is such a difficult task for them that it is hard for them to have interest in learning English. How to make beginners in junior high school become interested and confident in learning English has become key problem for teachers. MI theory helps teachers to reconsider their traditional viewpoints on teaching, rediscover each student's strength from a new prospective and improve English learning through multiple ways.MI theory was firstly raised by Dr. Howard Gardner, an American psychologist in his book Frames of Mind: The theory of multiple intelligences in 1983. In this theory, he pointed out that all normal human beings have at least eight intelligences (we have found until now). They are linguistic intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, spatial intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, musical intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence and naturalist intelligence. Different people possess these eight intelligences to different extents; some intelligence is strong while some is weak even in one person. Human beings learn or experience things with their different intelligences through their own distinct ways even in learning or experiencing the same thing. As a result, educators are challenged to reconsider their traditional viewpoints on teaching and learning activities. In order to improve achievements in teaching and learning, students'diversities in learning potentials and styles have to be recognized clearly and effective teaching and learning activities have to be designed for class. Educators should pay enough attention to students'personal uniqueness and provide a wide range of activities to facilitate learning, which is consistent with the idea of the National English Curriculum Standards (2001)"English teaching is not only for knowledge, but also for the all-around development and the individuality of every student".The author had studied the MI theory, and then designed a teaching model based on the theory. An experimental teaching was carried out in junior high middle school and the results of the experiment were studied, analyzed through statistic research to testify the effectiveness of MI theory in improving students'interests, achievements in English learning and their all-around developments. The author had conducted an experimental study in Minzu junior high middle school in Dangshan County, and two classes of Grade 7 were chosen as experimental and control groups. These two classes, with same 48 students and similar English performance, were taught by the same teacher before the experiment. During the experiment, the experimental group was taught by author with MI-based course design, while the control group was taught by author with traditional course. The experiment was conducted through instruments as questionnaires, interviews, classroom observations and tests. Four months later, the author studied results and found that students in experimental group became more interested in English learning, and they did much better than students of control group in the post test. Teaching activities based on MI theory has contributed significantly in arousing students'interests and confidences towards English learning. It has greatly improved students'English proficiency and has helped students with fully development.The findings of the study show that the application of MI theory to English teaching in junior high middle school advances the spreading of MI theory in China. More teachers will get a deep understanding of the effects of MI model instruction on students'learning. Furthermore, teachers are better aware of uniqueness of students'intelligences in order to design English courses more resourcefully and flexibly to meet students'different needs in their teaching activities. Moreover, it will supply valuable practical experience for further researchers in this field.