| In 1983, the psychologist, Professor Howard Gardner of Harvard University published a book called Frames of Mind. In his book he first proposed and named Multiple Intelligence Theory. Professor Howard Gardner thought that everyone was born with at least seven kinds of intelligences and these intelligences were mutually independent. The seven kinds of intelligences are: verbal-linguistic intelligence,logical-mathematical intelligence, visual-spatial intelligence, musical-rhythmic intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence and intrapersonal intelligence. In 1995 he proposed the eighth kind of intelligence,naturalist intelligence. He believed that the multiple intelligences were influenced by both the genetic factors and the cultural environment, and they could be changed and developed. In 1993 Gardner published another book named Multiple Intelligence: the Theory in Practice, in which the research thought about the application of Multiple Intelligence Theory in school education was put forward. Since the theory came out,there has been a large influence in the educational circles, causing the transformation of education. Because the theory has to adapt to the contemporary social development view of students, it advocates more attention to the differences of students, use diversified teaching methods, fully develop the potential of students and help students find the best way to learn or the most effective way to learn for themselves according to the characteristics of the students. It helps the teachers to find the students’ advantages and changes in teaching and it can make the teachers fully consider the characteristics of students and provide the students with diverse learning environment,so that everyone can learn well. So the educators in different nations began to explore how to apply this theory to the practical teaching, and a great number of related researches appeared. At present, in China, it is still in the initial stage for the study of Multiple Intelligence Theory. In recent years as the advocating of quality-oriented education and attention to children’s oral English learning, therefore how to applyMultiple Intelligence Theory to the children’s oral English teaching becomes a study which is worth doing.In this study, the application of Multiple Intelligence Theory in the oral English course for young learners will be discussed. This research mainly adopts the methods of action research in a real teaching environment, so it is provided with strong practicality.The research subjects are two parallel classes, Class A and Class B, in which the students are nearly in the same oral English level. Class A is the experimental class, in which the multiple intelligence teaching methods will be applied in oral English class.Class B is the control class. The teacher still adopts the traditional teaching method for oral English teaching in Class B. This experiment is divided into three stages. In the early stage of the experiment, the students of the experimental class are asked to carry on the questionnaire survey, including multiple intelligence test tables, multiple intelligence teaching menu questionnaire and English learning interest of primary school students table. The purpose of the survey is to understand the characteristics of the students’ intelligence and learning style, so that the targeted students can learn English more effectively and find the most suitable learning methods for their own learning style. It is necessary to do the pretest and collect the results. The second stage is to conduct the oral English teaching of the experimental class and the control class,respectively. In the process of teaching experimental class and that in the control class,there will be three oral English tests, and the test scores will be collected. The third stage is the collection of the oral English test scores after the experiment, and the questionnaire survey on the English learning interest will be conducted again.After ten months of teaching experiment, the five oral test scores of both the experimental class and the control class, including the pretest, the periodic tests and the posttest, have been collected respectively. Based on the five average scores and the five total scores of the two classes as well as the achievements of the two class Z test, it can be found that after ten months of having oral English classes, the oral English scores of both the two classes have improved. But at the early stage of the experiment, there is no significant difference between the two classes. After sixmonths, the Z test of the periodic testing showed that grades of two classes began to appear significant difference. When ten months later, at the end of the experiment, the achievements of the two classes have been very significant difference. The oral English scores of the experimental class improved higher and the students got more obvious progress. And through the study of the English learning interest questionnaire of experimental class, it can be found that after ten months of applying Multiple Intelligence Theory in oral English courses, the number of students who are very interested in English increased from twelve before the experiment to twenty-three at the end of the experiment.Through the experimental teaching research, it can be drawn the following two conclusions: Firstly, applying Multiple Intelligence Theory in oral English teaching for young learners, it is helpful to arouse the students’ learning interest in English.Secondly, applying Multiple Intelligence Theory in oral English teaching for young learners, the students’ oral English performances can be improved more effectively.This research takes the form of actual classroom teaching, applying Multiple Intelligence Theory in the children’s oral English teaching. The oral English courses are designed focusing on the different intelligences or eight kinds of intelligent integrated. It is an action research to conduct teaching reform, so it has strong practicality. In the teaching practice, Multiple Intelligence Theory can help teachers shift from traditional teaching methods to the new teaching pattern. Due to Multiple Intelligence Theory’s strong practicality, the teachers can analyze the teaching activities effectively and control or improve their teaching behavior. The teachers can create the teaching situation and design the teaching activities, according to the students’ interests, potential and characteristics of their intelligences to help students reach intelligence potential and get more progress in study. Multiple Intelligence Theory also provides theoretical guidance for personalized oral English teaching. It has been a long time since that the oral English classroom teaching adopts the same teaching method, ignoring the students’ individual differences, so the teachers fail to achieve a better teaching effect. Multiple Intelligence Theory has diversified the education connotation, it is beyond the traditional concept of intelligence, provides anew model for teachers’ teaching. It changes the traditional teaching methods which rely too much on the language and mathematical logic teaching method, enable teachers to adopt new teaching tools and strategies with a lively diverse teaching activities to help teachers change the teaching concept, improve the teaching ability.At the same time, due to the adjustment of the teachers’ teaching strategies, it stimulates the students’ interest in learning English. In a variety of classroom activities, the students get to know their own intelligent features, explore learning methods suitable for their own development, as well as get better learning effect.These are the satisfying achievements which have been got in the children’s oral English teaching by applying Multiple Intelligence Theory... |
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