A Study On Multiple Intelligence Distribution Survey Of Chinese College Students And Learning Styles

With the rapid developing and progress of English education, the college English teaching in our country has come into transforming phrase. More and more consideration is paid on the student-centered English teaching rather than that of teacher-centered. Since Frames of Mind was published in1983, Gardner Howard,a famous professor in Harvard University, whose multiple intelligences theory has been embraced by English teachers and educators. Based on this theory, they better understanding student's strength and characteristics and effectively meet the learning interest of their students. Up to now, western educators and scholars have done prosperous studies about this theory. In recent years, more and more Chinese scholars and English teachers have also manifested much attention as well as interest in this theory. However, it is to be regretted that both Chinese and western scholars focus their study on kindergarten, primary and middle school; nearly no research of application was conducted in college dimension. Therefore, it is meaningful to integrate MI theory with other language teaching theory in the practical teaching. For these reasons, the present researcher intends to combine the two theories to find out multiple intelligences and learning style preference distribution situation of Chinese college students, the relationship between them as well as their attitude and feedbacks to them, etc.The thesis as follow:Chapter One introduced background of the research, significance and aims of the research, and organization of the thesis. Chapter Two is the literature reviews which include some definition, the key points and principles of multiple intelligences theory as well as the relationship between MI theory and learning style. The following contents focus on domestic study on multiple intelligence research as well as those abroad. All kinds of definitions and classifications of the learning style are also presented. Chapter Three described research methodology which includes participants, objectives of the study, questionnaires, interview, experimental procedures, and data analysis instruments. The researcher made two surveys to find out Chinese university students' intelligence profiles and learning style preference distribution situation. The subjects of the surveys were 200 non-English majors from four universities in Hei Long Jiang Province. To guarantee the assessments more authentic, the questionnaires author employ both come from the experts in the field. The detailed presentations, analysis, discussion of these data were all exhibited in the Chapter Four. Chapter Five focuses on the implications for college English teaching in which new and practical ways were advanced to identify students'intelligence strength and preference learning styles and application in teaching practice. It also provided proportional teaching activities based on intelligence strength and preference learning styles and proposals for both teachers and learners. Chapter Six is the summary of findings; stating the limitations of the present study and some recommendations for further research.