Fonseca Mora, M.C. 2004.

Multiple Intelligences Theory as a framework for teaching English to teenagers in

Spanish context en P. Montijano A TEFL Methodology. Málaga: Aljibe

Multiple Intelligences Theory as a framework for

teaching English to teenagers in Spanish context

Mª Carmen Fonseca Mora

University of Huelva
fonseca@dfing.uhu.es

The question of why some students learn better than others has often been related to aptitude
or ability to learn a foreign language. This chapter reviews the language learning performance
of Spanish teenagers published by the Instituto de Calidad de la Enseñanza (2001) and
addresses the area of individual differences, the concept of language aptitude and the role of
memory in language learning. The Multiple Intelligences theory (MI) applied to the foreign
language classroom will be presented as a framework that can help secondary level teachers
of English give recognition to the holistic nature of learners, deal with cognitive aspects of
individual differences, increase the attractiveness of language learning tasks and therefore,
create favourable motivational conditions.

1. CAPABILITIES OF SPANISH STUDENTS OF ENGLISH OF COMPULSORY

SECONDARY EDUCATION

The study published by the Instituto Nacional de la Calidad de la Enseñanza (INCE,

2001) reviews briefly the level of 4,035 Spanish secondary level learners of English. This
report, although it does not include all the regions of Spain, provides a comprehensive picture
of the teaching and learning of English in Spanish secondary schools. The data for this study
was collected from 191 Spanish secondary schools and with the collaboration of 179 teachers.
The study identifies and evaluates the basic capabilities acquired by the students of English in
the 4th level of Compulsory Secondary Education on each of the following aspects included
in the curriculum: listening comprehension and oral expression, reading comprehension and
writing, grammar, and sociocultural knowledge (Figure 1). Out of a hundred, the global mark
that these students obtained was 49, with somewhat higher marks in the comprehension skills
(listening and writing), low marks in grammatical, socio-cultural knowledge and writing, and
very poor marks in oral interaction. Their lexical knowledge was particularly deficient, as
while 15% were considered to have an appropriate lexical level, the knowledge of 18% was
insufficient and 51% were evaluated as having a very disappointingly low lexical level.
This low achievement in language learning is clearly pointing to a need for change in
many different and complex issues: it demands an analysis of how second language teaching
fits into the specific educational context; it implies a review from the standpoint pedagogy of
the language teacher; and it definitely requires a revision of the learner and the beliefs about
the nature of language learning and language teaching.
 English proficiency level (4º ESO)

Socio-cultural aspects 40

Speaking 20

Grammar 37

Writing 39

Reading 51

Listening 66

Global mark 49

0 20 40 60 80
Figure 1: Proficiency level of English of Spanish secondary students
(INCE, 2001)

The question of general intelligence for language learning has many times been related to
poor language competence, but it seems to be much more complex as Sánchez (2001: 107)
suggests,

Something becomes quite clear, even obvious at times, to the teacher of a foreign language:
some students who are apparently intellectually gifted are rather slow at learning a non native
language, while others, with lower intellectual capacity are more efficient. This fact brings up a
question. Is there anything else in the learning process that affects learning itself with such
intensity that it might exceed or overshadow the individual intellectual capacity of a specific
learner?

Some of the possible answers to this highly complex issue can be derived from the
consideration of individual differences, the nature of the language aptitude construct and the
role of memory. Some emotional, cognitive and physical characteristics of students of
secondary level will also be considered.

2. INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN LANGUAGE LEARNING

A magnetic resonance imaging scan of the human brain reveals the contours of the brain
hemispheres. Each person has slightly different patterns of gyri or ridges and sulci or valleys,
which reflect individual differences in brain development.. According to neuroscience, these
individual differences are not only due to “nature”, to genetic endowment, but also to
“nurture”. Environmentalists affirm that learners’ experience is more important than their
innate capacity. From this point of view, learning consists of the strengthening of connections
in complex neural networks, with the strength of their connections determined by the
frequency of patterns in the input.
However, individual differences are not only represented in neurological data; they have
been also considered from cognitive, affective and social perspectives. Ellis (1994: 471)
affirms that in language learning “there’s a veritable plethora of individual learner variables
which researchers have identified as influencing learning outcomes”, and he points to age,
aptitude, learners’ beliefs and affective states, motivation, cognitive style and learning
strategies as the most commonly acknowledged factors. Though all of them are of crucial
importance, this chapter will focus on the relationship between linguistic aptitude, cognitive
learning tendencies and motivation.
Howard Gardner's MI theory, first published in 1983, offers an interesting perspective on
the concept of learners’ cognitive variation. From his research findings he proposed that
human cognitive competence is actually pluralistic rather than unitary. While a unitary
concept of intelligence helps to identify easily an individual's level of intelligence based on a
test score, a pluralistic concept gives a much more complete view of person’s strengths and
weaknesses and helps “people reach vocational and avocational goals that are appropriate to
their particular spectrum of intelligences” (Gardner 1983: 9).
The notion of intelligence has been defined as a "biopsychological potential that is
drawn on within a culture for a variety of purposes", such as solving problems (Gardner 1993:
577). Gardner (1983) initially proposed seven relatively independent forms of competence:
linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and
intrapersonal. He later added an eighth and a ninth intelligence, the naturalist and the
existential 1(Gardner, 1999). The following short definitions can help clarify the different
intelligences.

LINGUISTIC INTELLIGENCE: the ability to use oral and written language effectively
and creatively.
LOGICAL/MATHEMATICAL: the ability to use numbers effectively, to recognize
abstract patterns, to discern relationships and to reason well.
BODILY/KINESTHETIC: the ability to use one’s body to express oneself and to solve
problems.
MUSICAL: the ability to recognize tonal patterns and a sensitivity to rhythm, pitch, volume
and melody.
VISUAL/SPATIAL: the ability to present the spatial world internally in your mind.
INTERPERSONAL: the ability to understand other people, to work cooperatively and to
communicate, verbally and nonverbally, with others.
INTRAPERSONAL: the ability to understand the internal aspects of the self and to practise
self-discipline.
NATURALIST: the ability to discriminate among living things, as well as sensitivity
to other features of the natural world.

Gardner's (1983) MI theory provides a useful framework for understanding both the
basic competencies of all people as well as the particular strengths of individuals. An
individual's unique cognitive structure is based on the combination of these intelligences. The
core concepts of multiple intelligences theory provide many different options for the language
classroom as "genuine understanding is most likely to emerge and be apparent to others...if
people possess a number of ways of representing knowledge of a concept or skill and can

1
Gardner considers the spiritual intelligence as part of the existential intelligence. He comments about the
existential intelligence “I find the phenomenon perplexing enough and the distance from the other intelligences
vast enough to dictate prudence-at least for now.”(1999: 66)
move readily back and forth among these forms” (Gardner 1993: 13). This is, on the one
hand, strongly connected to the role of memory in language learning. On the other hand, MI
theory seems to be particularly interesting for teaching secondary level students as they are in
a period of their life where the understanding of their abilities and their learning differences
could have a beneficial effect on the way they approach the language learning process.

3. MEMORY AND LANGUAGE LEARNING

Although most individuals are capable of learning a second language to some degree
of competence, some learners are better equipped for the second language learning task than
others. Skehan (1998) reviewed empirical research done on language aptitude and defined this
human capacity as a triarchic concept based on "auditory ability, linguistic ability and
memory ability" (p.201). Skehan (1998) also states that the three modular stages of
information processing input, central processing and output are related to auditory ability,
linguistic ability and memory ability. His revision of a range of studies (Novoa et al.1988,
Obler 1989, Ioup et al. 1994, Humes-Barthlo 1989, Smith and Tsimpli 1995) indicates that
success in language learning is not related to learners’ intelligence quotient, but that
exceptional language learners are those that possess an unusual memory ability to code and
retrieve verbal information, while weak learners lack memory ability and phonemic coding
ability, in other words, they have problems at the input and at the output stages.
Memory is neither a single entity nor a phenomenon that occurs in a single area of the
brain. “Outer information” can become “inner information” through our senses. Hearing,
smelling, touching and so on, are tools that help us to encode and retrieve information in
everyday life. To go from short term memory (also called working memory) we need
“rehearsal”, that is to say, deep learning is based on a process that needs certain type of
“repetition”, of recurrent learning situations. There is a convergence of many kinds of
research on some of the rules that govern learning. One of the simplest rules is that practice
increases learning. Researchers emphasize that it is the retrieval process (in language learning
output) which activates dormant neurons to trigger our memories. Multiple memory locations
and systems are, in fact, responsible for our learning and recall, and the multiple intelligences
frame helps to “repeat” learning situations where the distinct cognitive formats can be
activated. According to neuroscientist Schachter (1996), different learning tasks may require
different ways of learning to store and recall information. Different features of learning help
to determine the permanence or weakness of memories. For example, comparisons of
subjects’ memories for words with their memories for pictures of the same objects show a
superiority effect for pictures (visual-spatial intelligence). The superiority effect of pictures is
also seen if words, pictures and music are combined during learning (Medina 1990).
Obviously, this finding has direct relevance for improving the long-term learning of verbal-
linguistic information; one implication is that MI theory could offer interesting options for the
teaching of a foreign language.

4. CHARACTERISTICS OF SECONDARY SCHOOL LEARNERS

Teaching English to teenagers in secondary education is not an easy task. According to

MacIntyre et al. (2002), second language communication is “heavily determined by
fundamental characteristics of the learner” (p. 560) and these affect directly the learner’s
willingness to communicate. A brief revision of teenagers’ emotional, intellectual and
physical changes will be helpful to later examine the usefulness of MI theory.
 Moskowitz (1978) reflects upon one of the main emotional features that characterise
this age group: teenagers are involved in the construction of their own identity. The image
that teenagers have of themselves is vital for their whole growth. Learners’ self perception is
greatly influenced by their interaction with others, especially with their family, their teachers
and their peers. Gardner and Krechevsky (1993) include among the foundations of their
model of educating the practical intelligence 2 at the middle school level the need to know
oneself, which refers to the knowledge of “one’s own intellectual profile, learning styles and
strategies” (p. 123). Another affect-related characteristic of secondary students is connected to
their sense of friendship. For teenagers peer approval is more important than that of adults.
Their increasing need for independence can be supported by tasks where they work and where
they can talk and argue with each other instead of only listening to the teacher. Texts or
stories that provide them with examples of the struggles adolescents experience as they try to
forge their own identity separate from their family or as they try to find the appropriate peer
group, and make a place for themselves in society will be very probably of their interest.
A significant change in the cognitive domain is teenagers’ gradual increase in
reasoning abilities and management of abstractions; their intellectual growth demands
challenge, problem-solving activities and thought-provoking tasks where not only linguistic
information has to be used but also real-life knowledge and procedures need to be put into
practice. Finally, teenagers’ physical side, including their levels of energy, needs to be
mentioned. There is an intrinsic need for movement and avoidance of sitting for hours in their
desks. This need for movement often diminishes their ability to concentrate on language
teaching materials, on textbooks for secondary school that contain communicative tasks
designed to help students to get control of the linguistic forms and, supposedly at the same
time, to centre their attention on the meaning of what is heard and said. However, many of
these activities are divorced from a meaningful context for teenagers. Some are little more
than structural exercises with a communicative veneer. Others are role-plays, drama, problem-
solving activities, or games that could motivate students to participate actively but that may
be considered by learners to be merely enjoyable activities. Thus they also need to “know
why they are being asked to perform a task to appreciate its significance” (Wenden 1991: 42).
From the MI perspective, tasks that take into account movement (bodily/kinaesthetic
intelligence), that pursue the development of the ability to understand other people and to
work cooperatively (interpersonal intelligence) or those activities that promote the
achievement of the strategies necessary to understand the internal aspects of the self and to
practise self-discipline (intrapersonal intelligence) would be of crucial importance when
teaching teenagers. Multiple Intelligences activities that take into account students’ interests
favour the exchange of learners’ personal experiences and therefore, create situations where
students can work towards their fluency in the target language, instead of spending many
hours doing mechanical exercises in the second language before trying to encode their own
thoughts into the FL as it happens in traditional classrooms.

4. MULTIPE INTELLIGENCES IN THE SECONDARY LEVEL FOREIGN

LANGUAGE CLASSROOM 3

Developing teaching practices that take into account MI theory, in my opinion, does
not imply assessing students’ intelligences in the language classroom as some authors have
suggested in other areas (Armstrong 1994, Haggerty 1995, Lazear 1999). It should be a
recognition on the part of the teacher of the existence of learners’ distinct cognitive
preferences that can be taken into account to plan more motivating lessons. The teacher offers

2
According to Sternberg’s triarchic concept of intelligence, the ability to adapt to one’s environment.
3
This section is an extension of a discussion published in Arnold and Fonseca (2004).
alternative tasks, not to teach to specific intelligences but to give learners the opportunity of
apprehending information in their preferred way, and to represent and reuse linguistic data in
different contexts. Within this cognitive model, “language is not seen as limited to a
‘linguistics’ perspective but encompasses all aspects of communication” (Richards and
Rodgers 2001: 117). It is asserted that language learning can be promoted through different
types of tasks where different intelligence frames interact.
Of the eight intelligences, the musical frame can easily create a positive secondary
classroom atmosphere. Teenagers enjoy listening to music, although it is also true that their
musical tastes sometimes differ from those of their teachers and both parts need to negotiate
the type of musical stimulus they are willing to hear. Benenzón (1995) explains the physical
and emotional effects of music. He points to physical consequences such as the adaptation of
breathing to the musical rhythms, the impact on muscular energy, and psychological effects as
seen in its ability to induce a certain type of mood. Myers (1996: 102) describes her
experience of using music in her writing classes:

I began to realize that the greatest value of music to enhance writing in the class was not in its
affective power, but in its isolating power. That is, music is a place to go. It gives students a
dimension in which to escape the crowded room and carry on the inner dialogue. In this sense,
music makes writing in a classroom more natural than it is otherwise.

The difficulty for teenagers to concentrate on certain tasks due to their high levels of
physical energy can be dealt with through the use of music. Music can also be used as the
focal point of a lesson, or simply as an introduction in order to set the ambience of the room.
For instance, the central tune of the film Ghost could help students to understand a love story.
The music used in this type of activity to accompany the reading can have an effect of
creating mental images in students’ minds. These pictures in the mind will be ‘a result of the
interaction between what we have in storage and what is going on at that moment’ (Stevick
1986: 16). The well-known tune of the Happy Birthday song immediately brings to mind. A
picture of celebrating with relatives or friends, while Vivaldi’s Four seasons places them
mentally in a nature setting and regional music can make them think of certain specific places.
The use of songs is well-received by teenagers; tasks designed to work with songs popular
with students or those that include the writing of the lyrics of a song are normally rated as
interesting and motivating. According to Quast, music “intensifies the flow of assimilation in
the hearer. Items of information are processed with multiple interconnections in memory
resulting in a better recall of data.’ (1995: 13). Similarly, singing in a foreign language is
often an easier step than speaking it, and while students are learning a song not only are they
getting phonological practice but also linguistic structures or patterns are memorised.
Gardner's visual/spatial intelligence is yet another essential tool for success in
language learning. Mental images, for instance, are of crucial importance while reading.
Tomlinson (1998) states that the systematic use of reading strategies that encourage
visualization - the activation of mental images - while trying to understand a text are central
for meaning making. While reading, students can create maps mind maps to visually represent
their understanding of ideas and processes. This reinforces re-reading practice as learners
need to go back to text to find out the specific information required. It is possible, for
instance, to make charts to represent relationships between places mentioned in a text and
events that happen there, to identify different settings and descriptions that move the plot
along, or to establish the chronology of events to understand a story.
Visual aids are also a very common tool used to teach vocabulary. Semantic mapping
of vocabulary facilitate learning and lexical retrieval. Charts, pictures, drawings, slides,
posters, and videos can also be used as visual support for language production activities.
looking at a painting and focussing on different aspects of that painting as well as inventing
dialogues or stories related to it may be of interest not only for language learning but also for
the development of an aesthetic sensitivity toward arts.
The logical/mathematical intelligence is addressed when learners, for example, have to
conduct a survey to find out information about any chosen topic. The creation of the questions
to be asked and the verbal reporting of the numerical findings is an illustration of how
logical/mathematical and verbal/linguistic abilities interact. This mathematical frame has to
do with numerical information and also with the use of logistical reasoning strategies.
Predicting what is going to happen in a story, inferring the steps to follow in order to solve a
given problem, analysing the cause and effects of incidents reported in newspapers are tasks
that challenge teenagers’ reasoning ability and connect them with their cultural environment.
Referring to learning in general, Armstrong recommends several tactics that can be used at
different phases of problem solving:

find analogies; separate the various parts of a problem; propose a possible solution and then
work backward; describe the characteristics that a solution should have; assume the opposite of
what you are trying to prove, generalize (proceed from a given set of conditions to a larger set
that contains the given one) or specialize (move from a given set of conditions to a smaller set).
(1999: 99)
Posing dilemmas to secondary level language learners where they have to use strategies such
as these to solve the problem promotes discussion and provides learners with tools to face
conflicts in real-life situation.
Taking the bodily/kinaesthetic intelligence into account can also help to motivate
students. Teenagers’ need for movement has been overlooked in the classroom context spend
many hours a day sitting at their desks in the classrooms. Planning activities that include
movement or hands-on tasks can be very useful to help students concentrate at certain
moments of the day. Simulations, role-plays, games, drama are examples of activities that
address the need for movement. Cutting a text into stripes and asking each student in a group
to read his/her fragment aloud and to organize themselves so as to stand in the way the
fragments have to be ordered to reproduce the complete original text is another illustration of
how to introduce movement in the secondary language classroom. In another task where
learners need to mime the title of a film for others to guess, the bodily-kinaesthetic and
interpersonal abilities are brought into play.
The interpersonal and intrapersonal abilities are of great interest when teaching
teenagers. Teenagers often feel an emotional instability as they are no longer children but do
not yet belong to the world of adults. As it has been mentioned before, teenagers are involved
in the construction of their own identity, which is a process that is related to how they interact
with others (interpersonal intelligence) and how they understand themselves (intrapersonal
intelligence).
One of the three metafunctions of language explained by Halliday is the interpersonal
function. In fact, language learning has been defined as a social process which has as a main
goal the development of communicative competence (Hymes 1971, Canale and Swain, 1980).
In a broad sense, the definition of language competence includes not only organizational
knowledge of how utterances and texts are combined according to grammatical and textual
rules, but also the pragmatic knowledge of how to get across an intended meaning or how to
accomplish an intended communicative goal (Bachman 1990). This definition of pragmatic
knowledge is related to interpersonal intelligence which has to do with the ability to
harmonize with others, to understand of their perspectives and opinions and also to the skill of
convincing others in order to achieve personal objectives. Two concepts implied by
interpersonal intelligence are empathy and the ability to work with others. Robles (2002: 90)
proposes activities such as that of My point, your point where secondary learners of English
are asked to think of an argument they had recently and to write its description under the
heading of “The situation, my point of view” and then under the other person’s perspective.
Robles (2002) adds some questions that guide learners to put themselves in the other person’s
shoes.
As for working in groups, this is a strategy that students need to learn as it does not
mean merely sitting together and working. To cooperate effectively learners need to have the
opportunity of making decisions together, of sharing ideas and of agreeing on how best to
accomplish a task. It implies that the teacher delegates power to the groups as they will have
the responsibility for getting the most out of the task (Ehrman and Dörnyei 1998).
The intrapersonal intelligence, however, involves more individual work whereby
learners try to know better themselves, to be aware of their emotions, to manage them, and to
become self-motivating. Thinking-aloud procedures, where different learners explain how
they accomplished a specific task can help them to discover if their tactics are the most
appropriate ones. Questions such as “who is the person who has had the most positive
influence on your life and why?” (Díaz Pinto 2002) can activate self-knowledge and initiate
lively verbal exchanges. Visualizing and using the use of music to relax and meditate on a
personal experience while the teacher´s voice guides them with questions that help them to
mentally relive it, and to analyse what they did and how they did it is another technique that
develops students’ emotional intelligence. When these types of activities are done for the first
time in the classroom, teachers need to ensure that learners understand the purpose and the
usefulness of these tasks.
Finally, the naturalist intelligence, that is to say, the ability understand and to take
pleasure in the natural world can also provide support for language learning. Unfortunately, it
has not yet been developed extensively in the language classroom but activities that involve
the use of outdoor resources, that include direct field observation and dealing with the vegetal
and animal world relate to the naturalist intelligence.

5. MI THEORY AS A TEACHER-FRIENDLY TOOL FOR LESSON PLANNING

Applying a few isolated MI tasks to the language classroom may not produce A major
motivational effect. Teaching materials need to be significant for the learners, that is to say,
learners have to be able to recognize their relevance and purpose, but they also have to be
used in a systematic way. In many classrooms, teachers do not really select what they want to
teach but rather blindly follow the contents of the coursebook. As a matter of fact,
coursebooks, although they may present the curricula in an attractive way, cannot reach
students’ different needs and it is the teacher’s role to adapt them to their specific classes.
Dörnyei (2001) reminds us of the most frequent motivational recommendation given to
educators “Find out what your students’ goals are and what topics they want to learn about,
then build these into your curriculum as much as possible 4”(p.63). This advice does not
necessary imply that a coursebook would not be of benefit for learners, but that for any given
unit the teacher can choose a topic of students’ interest and then, incorporate learning
activities related to that topic to support the main aims of the unit.
Inserting some thematic units to teach the language curriculum of any level can make
the teaching materials more relevant for the learners. MI tasks become in this context a
teacher-friendly tool that helps us to relate the chosen topic to learners’ learning strengths and
everyday experiences and allows language learners to engage a variety of qualitatively
different kinds of representations that favour their learning. Coding information into another
format distinct from the original receives special emphasis in educational literature. Klein
4
Emphasis in the original text
explains that transmediation is the “process of translating ideas from one sign system to
another” (2003: 70) and that this process increases comprehension and memory as
exemplified in Gobert and Clement’s study (1999) about the positive effect of student-
generated diagrams to understand causal and dynamic knowledge of certain typeS of
scientific texts. MI tasks can also stimulate language practice in the classroom as they
increase task attractiveness, break the monotony of learning and encourage the involvement of
students. The following unit can serve as an example of a thematic unit applied to the foreign
language classroom.
The thematic unit “Huelva is my town” was put into practice with 13-year-old Spanish
students of English. The planning and preparation of this thematic unit included the following
steps:

 Selection of the topic according to students’ needs, interests and personal

experiences.
 Definition of the purposes of this unit. It was designed to increase
students’awareness of the social and cultural significance of their hometown as
they created a touristic guide of Huelva for their penfriends.
 Establishment of main aims. At the end of this thematic unit learners would be
capable of:
a. describing the main historical and geographical monuments and places of
interest in their town in the target language.
b. working cooperatively
c. creating a tourist guide to Huelva in any of the following formats: a brochure, a
powerpoint presentation or a video recording.
 Materials and resources needed: brochures, videos, webpages of English tourist
guides to serve as models, tapes of music, charts, maps, texts describing other
towns.
 Creating the video, the powerpoint presentation or the brochure included the use of
different multiple intelligences:
a. direct field observation (physically with a camera or virtually on the web) of
nature environments or the historical monuments;
b. metacognitive thinking processes (the knowledge about oneself, about the
language and the procedures or strategies to be used to complete successfully
the task chosen);
c. the ability to harmonize with others, to understand their perspectives and
opinions, but also to convince others in order to select the most relevant places
or monuments.
d. the use of games to learn lexical items related to the topic and to create a
questionnaire to find out students’ favourite monuments and places.
e. the use of their reasoning abilities to solve reading problems in order to find
treasures hidden on a map of the city of Huelva.
f. the use of visual teaching aids such as charts, pictures, drawings, slides,
posters, and videos.
g. the listening to musical extracts to contrast different pieces of regional music.
h. the organization of the written/oral data and the visual data they had to
incorporate in their final product.
6. Conclusions

There are many variables that could explain the failure of Spanish secondary learners
of English as reported by the INCE (2001). We must not simplify explanations for this
difficulty and reduce the problem to a lack of general language aptitude, but what is obvious
is that something needs to be changed for teenagers to become more motivated and interested
in learning a foreign language. Schumann (1999) explains that one of the dimensions along
which stimulus appraisals are made- and motivation is determined- is coping potential. It
implies that the way teachers present material to their students as well as the steps followed
to involve them in language learning influence learners’ beliefs about their ability to be
successful and consequently, their willingness to participate in a language task.
According to MI theory, each person has different types of intelligences or tools for
learning and is strong in several of them. As MI theory suggests,acctivating different memory
pathways through the use of a variety of language activities that require diverse tools for
learning that a person has could be an effective way to organize maintenance rehearsal and to
promote deep level processing, that is to say, to facilitate memory ability and output, to
optimize foreign language learning. Klein (2003) calls the MI theory a “new psychological
wine in old pedagogical bottles”(p. 50) and in fact, one can affirm that MI is nothing new for
the vocational language teacher, but it could certainly improve language teaching in many
contexts. Teaching English to teenagers using models that provide a rich, teacher-directed
variety of learning activities which at different moments will call upon the eight different
intelligences will surely make for an interesting, lively, and effective classroom for all
students.

Discussion

a. Is a talent for languages qualitatively different from other talents, that is to

say, are very talented language learners simply high-aptitude learners or do they
have fundamentally different abilities?
b. What are the differences between successful and unsuccessful language learners?
c. Review the implications of Gardner’s definitions of intelligence for language
learning and teaching.
d. What options for the teaching of a foreign language are offered by the Multiple
Intelligences Theory?
e. What problems do you foresee in applying certain MI tasks in the Spanish
secondary classroom? How would you solve them?
f. What pedagogical implications would you suggest to help Spanish secondary
learners of English to become more successful language learners?
Recommended readings

1. Skehan, P.1998. Research into language aptitude. (chapter 8) In A Cognitive Approach to

Language Learning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Skehan reviews research done on language aptitude and defines this human capacity as
a triarchic concept based on auditory ability, linguistic ability and memory ability. He
associates these abilities with the stages of information processing: input, central
processing and output. His analysis of talented language learners’ capabilities reveals
that the exceptional language learner is very good at assimilating and retrieving verbal
material.

2. Brown, H.D. 2000. Human learning.(chapter 4). In Principles of Language Learning and
Teaching. New York: Pearson-Longman.

The author considers several learning theories to explain how cognitive processes such
as perception, evaluation, storage and retrieval are central to the task of internalizing a
language. He examines the general nature of human learning and presents current
thoughts about the role of intelligence and memory in the language acquisition
process.

3. Gardner, H. 1999. Intelligence reframed. Multiple intelligences for the 21 st century. New
York: Basic Books

Gardner describes his theory and explains how it has evolved. He introduces his two
new intelligences and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of broadening the
concept of intelligence. He guides the reader on the educational issues of his theory
and revises the critical work against MI.

4. Fonseca Mora, M.C. (ed.) 2002. Inteligencias múltiples, múltiples formas de enseñar
inglés. Sevilla: Mergablum.

This book includes the writings of researchers and language teachers that have
applied MI theory to the teaching of English in Spanish educational context. Each
chapter combines theory and practice as theoretical information about the different
intelligences is followed by appendixes that illustrate with extensive examples how
MI theory can be used in the foreign language classroom.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Armstrong, T.1999. Seven Kinds of Smart: Identifying and Developing Your Multiple
Intelligences. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc.
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