A Study On English Writing In Adult Education From The Perspective Of Multiple Intelligences Theory

Writing is an important part in English teaching and one of the key skills that language learners need to acquire. Writing accounts for a large proportion in many important examinations (College Entrance Examinations, CET, IELTS, TOEFL, etc). However, most adult college students are not interested in writing. The reason may vary. Multiple intelligences theory (abbreviated as MI) was first put forward by Howard Earl Gardner from Harvard University in his book Frames of Mind:the Theory of Multiple Intelligences (1983), in which he defines the seven intelligences:verbal-linguistic, mathematical-logical, visual/spatial, bodily/kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence. In1999, he added the eighth intelligence, the naturalistic intelligence. The MI theory harbors a number of educational implications that are worthy of consideration.Multiple intelligences was readily embraced from the very beginning in the educational field and widely accepted and welcomed by educators, both theoretically and practically. Its scientific value and practical implication merit serious study.For this reason, in the article based on the theory of multiple intelligences, the author researched whether the English writing teaching mode significantly impacted on adults’ interest and improved the teaching effect of English writing. The difficult writing problem was explored in this thesis.The author has conducted some experimental studies in a college of Sichuan province nearly one year. The freshmen of two adults’classes were chosen as samples. The author has used the MI theory to guide the teaching methods in an experimental class and traditional teaching in the control class. The experiment designs to test and verify whether applying multiple intelligences theory to the English writing class in adult education can stimulate students’interest and improve the teaching effect of English writing. The author has done the following hypotheses:the implementation of MI theory can stimulate adult students’interest in English Writing; the implementation of MI theory can improve the teaching effect of English writing in adult education. The experiment lasted nearly one year, and the data was analyzed by SPSS. Data analysis showed that the teaching of English writing based on multiple intelligences theory made great progress compared with that based on the traditional teaching method in adult education. In addition, the author also found that some new designed teaching or research methods (interviews, classroom observations, pre-test and post-test) helped greatly adult students in the experimental class arouse their interest in and enthusiasm for English writing.This research has achieved some initial fruitful results. However, some deficiencies still exist. The sample size and training length, for instance, is relatively limited. Therefore, a follow-up study is to be conducted.