The Design And Implementation Of Senior High English Classroom Activities Based On Multi-intelligence Theory

As a universal language, English plays an important role in political, economical and culturalcommunication. According to The English Curriculum standard for High School（2003），whiledesigning the curriculum, teachers should pay attention to students’ interests, needs, experiencesand cognitive levels and design the classroom activities which are suitable for students withdifferent combinations of intelligences. At the same time, teachers should help students formproper learning habits or strategies and develop autonomous learning skills and team spirits.Moreover, with the steady advance of curriculum reform, more and more teachers realize thedistinctive function of activities for Senior English teaching. However, on reflecting the presentsituation of our English class teaching, the form of activities is dull and routine and teachingcases are out of date, contributing to the fact that the classroom activities fail to achieve theteaching purposes. Therefore, it is important to bring the theory of Multiple Intelligence (MI) toour senior English classroom because this theory is in accordance with the curriculumrequirement in terms of the educational principles.MI theory believes that every person possesses a different intelligence combination which mayresult in his unique learning style (Gardner,1983). Teachers have to study the combinations andstyles of students. They should make sure that students’ weak intelligences can be developed asmuch as the stronger ones. Teachers should create a relaxing and harmonious atmosphere inwhich the teaching can be launched smoothly. MI theory also advocates a "collaborated”relationship and "open" classroom teaching. This teaching method encourages the developmentof students’ multiple intelligences through proper classroom activities.This research studies the relationship between students’ all-round development and diversifiedclassroom activities through the discussion of the following three specific questions:1. Candiversified classroom activities help to develop multiple intelligences in a balanced way?2. Candiversified classroom activities result in students’ positive affective attitude?3.Does thediversified classroom activities, compared to the traditional teaching method bear a betterteaching effect?In order to find out the answers to those questions mentioned above, an experiment wascarried out and Class5and6in senior2of Pingdu No.1Middle School in Shandong Province were chosen as subjects, class5being the experimental class while class6being the control class.Before the experiment, questionnaires were delivered to the students of the two classes, to get thecurrent state of the Senior high classroom activities. As a complementary measure, someinterviews of teachers and students were carried out and questions mainly ranged from designingthe classroom activities to the implementation of those activities, as well as the teaching effects.Results of the questionnaire and interviews show that classroom activities are boring andmonotonous and the teachers mainly teach in a traditional way, neglecting the fact that studentsare creative beings and independent individuals.In the present study, the experimental class was treated with diversified classroom activitieswhile teaching in the control class followed the traditional way, without carefully-designedactivities concerning students’ different intelligence combinations. The experiment lasted a term(4months), during which time the teacher observed students closely and took notes about theirbehavior changes and their responses to those classroom activities.After the experiment, a questionnaire was delivered to the experimental students. Thequestionnaire mainly concerns students’ attitudes and feelings towards this new teaching method.At the same time, the students’ grades in final examination were compared. Data were collectedfrom the questionnaires, teachers’ accounts and students’ performances in the final-termexamination.The post-experiment questionnaire shows that the diversified classroom activities have notonly made the class more interesting but make students more interested in English learning.Furthermore, it has encouraged students’ confidence and cooperation. The teacher’s accountsshow that students become more active in taking part in classroom activities and their speakingand communicative abilities have been improved. Meanwhile, the results from the two final-termexaminations’ indicate that, the experimental group attain to a better achievement in thedevelopment of their integrating skills.However, the implementation of diversified classroom activities has its limitations. Under thecurrent oversized class situation, how to enforce the diversified classroom activities, how toimprove the teachers’ qualification and how to develop the students’ intelligences in an efficientway is what we need to consider more deeply.