The Application Of Multiple Intelligences Theory To The Teaching Of English Reading In Junior High School

The National English Curriculum Standards (experimental version) promulgated in2001points outthat the current situation of English education in our country still cannot meet the requirements ofeconomic and social development in our country. The key point of English curriculum reform is to changethe traditional teaching practices which over-emphasize the explanation and transmission of knowledgeabout grammar and vocabulary, but ignore the development of students’ language using ability. The reformstresses that English curriculum should develop students’ comprehensive language competence. Thetraditional English reading class is dominated by teacher’s explanation of language points, neglectingstudents’ learning interest and the teaching of reading strategies. Therefore, teachers need to change thetraditional teaching models in order to meet the requirements in English Curriculum Standards.The essence of multiple intelligences (MI) theory is in accord with the idea of the Standards. Thetheory, which was put forward by Howard Gardner in his book Frames of Mind in1983, points out that allthe normal human beings have at least eight intelligences and everyone has a unique combination of theeight intelligences—everyone has different strong intelligences and weak intelligences. MI theoryemphasizes that teachers should respect every student’s unique intelligent characters and design morescientific and effective classroom activities in order to improve students’ multiple intelligences, and thus,promote their all-round development. MI-based classroom activities should involve multiple intelligencesin order to arouse students’ interest, stimulate their potentials and develop their weak intelligences by usingstrong intelligences.This thesis consists of six chapters: chapter one is the introduction of research background, researchquestions and organization of the thesis; chapter two is the literature review, which introduces the MItheory and studies on it; chapter three is the discussion of the application of MI theory to the teaching ofEnglish reading; chapter four presents the research methodology; chapter five is data analysis anddiscussion; and chapter six summarizes major findings and limitation of the research.Having studied multiple intelligences theory, the author conducted an experiment which applies MItheory into the teaching of English reading course. The author carried out the experiment for one term in junior middle school with the following two research questions: firstly, whether the application of MItheory in English reading class can arouse students’ English learning interest and promote their learningmotivation? Secondly, whether the application of MI theory in English reading class can improve students’reading ability and grades? The author chose two Grade8classes in Shangqiu No.13junior middle schoolas the experimental class and the control class separately. The two classes, with60students, had the sameEnglish reading proficiency and were taught by the same teacher before the experiment. During theexperiment, the author gave the experimental class one MI-based English reading lesson every week.Instruments such as questionnaires, tests, classroom observation and survey were used in the experiment.After the experiment, having analyzed the results, the author found that students in the experimental classhad a significantly higher English reading proficiency than students in the control class. Moreover, theformer had more interest in learning English than the latter.Results of the research indicate that the application of MI theory to the teaching of English readingcourse is effective in arousing students’ learning interest and in improving their reading proficiency. Thesefindings will be helpful in the spreading of MI theory in China. They are also helpful for teachers to get adeeper understanding on the application of the theory to English class; and they will guide teachers todesign activities more flexibly with students’ unique intelligence combinations in mind to meet theirdifferent needs. Furthermore, this research will supply precious reference for future researches in this field.