A bilingual school in Hong Kong recently advertised itself as being inspired by the theory of multiple intelligences (link here).
Howard Gardner has been approached many times about how best to use MI theory in the teaching of foreign languages. He believed originally that MI ideas could only contribute modestly to bilingual education, compared to how they could be used in the teaching of subjects such as history or biology. He now offers the following advice on ways in which MI theory can be useful.
Youngsters probably learn languages best in different ways. I, for example, love to learn from the written text; many, perhaps most others, prefer to learn through human interactions, watching videos, etc.
We all learn the best when we are motivated by the topic and like the setting in which the learning takes place. Especially given the new technologies, it should be possible to "custom-fit" the educational approach to the student.
This is probably the most important point, but it is the most difficult to explain succinctly. Every language has certain distinctive features which are non-intuitive to those who do not speak the language. For example, the various subjunctives in Spanish don’t make intuitive sense to me; Latin cases are difficult for those who don't mark cases in their native language, etc. There are many ways in which to convey these concepts, which are important within a language, and multiple intelligence approaches can be quite helpful. I work out these ideas in Chapters 7-9 of my book, The Disciplined Mind.
My book, Intelligence Reframed, contains a large bibliography which has various "tests" for the multiple intelligences. I don’t particularly recommend any of them, but if you need some kind of instrument to measure a profile, that is where you should begin. Be sure to distinguish between tests that simply measure preferences, and ones that actually tap skills in the different intelligences.
More broadly speaking, the key ways that schools can use the theory of multiple intelligences is through individuation and pluralization. Whether in language education, or the teaching of any other subject, teachers can use MI theory to design lesson plans that enhance their students' strengths, improve upon any weaknesses, and keep engagement high.
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