A Relational Study Of Multiple Intelligences And English Achievement

In 1983,the well known professor Howard Gardner of Harvard University published Frames of Mind,which marks the beginning of the research on the theory of multiple intelligences.Gardner holds the view that intelligence is multifaceted which includes eight kinds of intelligence.They are verbal linguistic intelligence,logical mathematical intelligence,music rhythm intelligence,visual spatial intelligence,body kinesthetic intelligence,self-knowledge introspective intelligence,interpersonal intelligence and naturalist intelligence.The multiple intelligences theory emphasizes that everyone has multiple independent intelligences and the different combinations of these intelligences show the individual differences in intelligence.In recent years,many western scholars and educators have carried out the research on the theory of multiple intelligences and achieved fruitful results.At the same time,an increasing number of Chinese scholars and teachers have strong interest in multiple intelligences.These studies are conducted in kindergarten,primary school,middle school,high school,college,vocational school and so on.But the research on the relationship between multiple intelligences and English achievement in middle school is still in blank.On the frame of multiple intelligences theory,the thesis studies 180 students from Bijia Mountain Middle School in Shishou City,Hubei Province.The author made use of the multiple intelligences questionnaire and applied the descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation to analyze the relationships between such students’ multiple intelligences and English achievement.According to the statistics analysis,the thesis has the following conclusions:First,among the 180 students from Bijia Mountain Middle School,the average of naturalist intelligence is the highest one and the average of body kinesthetic intelligence is the lowest one.Second,the overall level of surveyed students’ multiple intelligences and English achievement is not relevant.Third,verbal linguistic intelligence and interpersonal intelligence are positivelycorrelated with English achievement.Body kinesthetic intelligence is found negatively correlated with English achievement.Through the study on correlations between multiple intelligences and English achievement,this paper aims to improve teachers’ teaching and students’ studying by taking advantage of superiority intelligences,to promote the balanced development of students’ inferiority intelligence.