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Very Young Learners (4 - 8): What can we do with them?

Speaker: Rosie Tanner
Moderator: Jenny Johnson
Date: Wednesday 13 December 2000.

"Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligence (MI) theory posits that we all possess at least eight "intelligences": Bodily Kinaesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Musical, Naturalist and Visual-Spatial intelligences. Each of us has an intelligence profile, made up of different doses of each intelligence. When I first met MI theory, it stirred much recognition within me, and has strongly influenced my own teaching and training as well as the way I look at people around me. How can MI theory be applied to EFL teaching and training?"

Rosie Tanner is a teacher educator at the Institute of Education at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. She teaches methodology, personal development and general education courses on a one-year postgraduate pre-service teacher training course. She has taught and trained in Europe, South America and China and regularly gives workshops at conferences. Rosie is also an EFL writer.

MODERATOR> Evening everybody! Well, evening here in Spain anyway. We're chatting with Rosie Tanner today. She's in Amsterdam. Hi Rosie. How are you?

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> Hi everyone. I m fine, but in Amersfoort (a small town east of Utrecht)!

MODERATOR> Sorry! Is that anywhere near Amsterdam?

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> About half an hour by train.

MODERATOR> Ok. Now we are orientated! Multiple intelligence theory is something that not many practising teachers know very much about, Rosie. Can you introduce it for us a little?

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> OK. Multiple Intelligence theory states that we all have at least eight intelligences: interpersonal, intrapersonal, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial, bodily-kinaesthetic, musical, linguistic and naturalist. Everyone is a mix of all of these; we all have an MI profile.

bonnietsai> Actually Nine. Howard Gardner is now talking about a spiritual intelligence.

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> Indeed - I forgot that one!

MODERATOR> Hello Bonnie! Nice to have you with us!

J> How can we know what our own intelligence profile is?

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> Well, you would need to do some kind of a test. There are questionnaires, for example but these are handy for those with a strong linguistic intelligence, of course. You tick a list of questions and at the end add up your scores (a bit like those quizzes in magazines) or if you read about MI theory, you get a pretty good idea yourself about where you are strong.

MODERATOR> A personal question: Where are YOU strong?

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> I am pretty visual-spatial (love using visuals in my classes), bodily-kinaesthetic (like sport and get good ideas while doing it), and I am more interpersonal than intrapersonal. Strangely enough, as a language teacher and speaker of several languages, on those tests I come out as not very linguistically intelligent! Something wrong with those tests?

MODERATOR> Thank you for the examples. This gives a good idea of the kind of strengths you are talking about.

bonnietsai> It's hard to keep up with the intelligences. What happens is that Howard Gardner makes an hypothesis and then does research to see if there is any proof that such and such intelligence exists. I have heard him say that musical intelligence should have been slotted in with visual spatial.

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> Oh, I think those two intelligences are separate, don't you? He does do brain research to find out about the intelligences, which is why I think the theory is so interesting - it's based on neurology. Maybe it's interesting to link with ELT in some way?

J> Are any of the profiles more applicable to EFL than others?

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> Let me be clearer about the profiles. Your profile is made up of all of your intelligences. I find it hard personally to link the naturalist intelligence to EFL, except perhaps if you are dealing with environmental issues. Some people link it with the logical-mathematical intelligence, by saying that ranking or cataloguing activities are naturalist, but I disagree. Of course, group dynamics in the classroom are linked with interpersonal intelligence and all those reflective activities we do on teacher education courses with the intrapersonal intelligence. And I suppose guided fantasy activities would perhaps be labelled as strongly visual and perhaps spiritual! Every activity generally would be linked to several intelligences at once... e.g. putting a picture story into the right order in a group would be visual-spatial, interpersonal, logical-mathematical.

Montse> How do you apply MI theory in your training?

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> Good question! Most of the work has been done in junior school education and I find it hard to think of activities for my teacher trainees. However, I use, for example, poster presentations, portfolios of work (including photos, learners' work), activities which require my trainees to move around instead of just sit and listen. I try to offer a range.

Montse> So you try to include something for all the intelligences in your training activities?

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> Yes, but perhaps the most important thing is to get my trainees to think about their own intelligences, to teach them about the intelligences, so they are aware that every child in their class has their own strengths. It is a great theory for improving self-esteem, too.

bonnietsai> Ref. Naturalist intell. What about seeing similarities and differences between your own language and the language you are learning?

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> Another good question, Bonnie! This is a good one, but why do you see it as naturalist and not linguistic, or do you see it as both? (Of course its not important really, if something works!)

J> Can you say more about self-esteem? How does it improve a teacher's self esteem?

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> Well, if you do tests with the participants in the course, everyone has an MI profile and there is always some kind of recognition (Oh, so that's why I could never learn anything from my History teacher!). Everyone is, as the American books on MI say, smart, in their own way. They know it, but in many education systems only the logical-mathematical and linguistic intelligences are used. I think this is less so in EFL, with all the wonderful range of activities, though. So no-one is better or worse than everyone. It's a tool for celebrating and working on individual differences.

MODERATOR> Bonnie has more to add on similarities and differences.

bonnietsai> Because the intelligence work together, It is sometimes hard to separate them. My question about seeing similarities and differences is an example Gardner uses to describe the naturalist intelligence. He uses the example of trainers, you know running shoes. Kids who haven't much contact with nature can tell you how different marks of trainers are alike and different.

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> Very interesting. If it comes from the Man Himself, it must be right!

MODERATOR> MI theory is very western. Is there anyone out there from another culture who thinks it is relevant, or irrelevant, to their own culture? Is it culture specific? Is it nature or nurture?

Elisabet> I am working with teenagers in Argentina.

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> Hello Elisabet. Wow, isn't chatting great! Here we are from around the globe. What do you think about the culture thing? I worked in Chile and I am sure it's relevant there. Do you use MI in your work, Elisabet? If so, how?

Elisabet> It's very difficult to use it where I work.

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> What makes it difficult? Some people find themselves feeling very bound, for example, by exam systems or a particular book. That's another thing you can do - check out your textbook to see which intelligences are covered.

Minnesota> How on earth do you find out from a textbook what intelligences are covered?!

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> Hi Minnesota... once you know about MI, you can sort of evaluate an activity to see which intelligences it might appeal to. E.g. listening to a text and answering multiple choice questions might be seen as appealing to intrapersonal (you are doing it alone) and logical-mathematical intelligences. Or one activity a student of mine presented last week was a questionnaire which learners themselves designed and then asked each other questions using it. Intra- and interpersonal?

bonnietsai> There is an American EFL course called New Interchange that has a chapter on MI so that students can become aware of the strengths and weaknesses they have.

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> There are many books on MI but not good ones linked to EFL.

Montse> Where's the best place to read about MI theory?

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> Ways of Learning (Paul Davis et al), Cambridge, has a part of a chapter on ways of learning and they discuss MI. I love a new book called Multiple Intelligences: the complete MI book. Kagan and Kagan. But it's not cheap! A cheaper one is 7 kinds of Smart by Thomas Armstrong. And David Lazear writes good stuff. All these are related to education in general.

Montse> Thanks.

bonnietsai> Harvard also does on line courses for a few US$ (http://pzweb.harvard.edu)

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> Bonnie, thanks. A great site. There are links from there to others, too.

Minnesota> Do you find that teenagers find it interesting to discover that they are visual or whatever?

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> Yes, I think it gives a value to them. Of course, teenagers are probably very musical (does intelligence depend on your stage in life, I wonder? Am I becoming more intrapersonal as I enter my 40s?!).

ODERATOR> Can you tell us about a few more activities which bring out the best in different students, Rosie?

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> Bringing out the best in students? It's hard, because different activities appeal to different students. I suppose then we are talking humanism and we should be talking MI. If I am bringing out the best in students, then I think I would go for activities celebrating their differences, rather than being competitive. E.g. there is one activity (naturalist?!) where students have to categorise some dinosaurs and say why they choose categories. There is no right answer. That's also a key. My trainees have to choose themes themselves for their portfolios (in discussion with me, so I get to ask them about them, too); this celebrates their strengths as trainee teachers, rather than testing them against some anonymous norm. Them choosing also allows them to show their MI strengths; e.g. this week one of my trainees handed in her portfolio at the end of a period of school practice. It was, surprisingly to me, full of photos and drawings from her learners; obviously a visual-spatial one, that! She showed her strength that way.

bonnietsai> If you think about activities that you can give students choose as to how they can do them using the intelligences as a criteria. This illustrates to students that there are different ways of doing the same thing. For some it could be writing a story, for others a song, for still others acting something out or making a questionnaire.

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> A great idea! I also give choice in ways of presenting something my students have researched: on paper, as a poster, on a video.

MODERATOR> This has been very interesting, lots of food for thought. Sadly, our time is up!

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> Yes, I have really enjoyed talking to you all.

MODERATOR> Any final hints and tips for all those teachers out there, Rosie?

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> I would just say that it's important to be aware of the differences in your students' MI profiles, and in your own; awareness is the first step to change. Thanks everyone for coming!

MODERATOR> Thank you Rosie! Have a great holiday season! Same to you all. The next chat is after the holidays ... Bonnie Tsai is with us again in February, too.

SPEAKER_Rosie Tanner> Yes, Happy Christmas to those who are celebrating it! Bye.

Sites of Interest

A site where you can read about and test your MI for yourself:
http://snow.utoronto.ca/Learn2/mod3/miinventory.html

General descriptions of the intelligences:
http://www.surfaquarium.com/mi.htm

A site of links.
http://www.surfaquarium.com/im.htm

More links and books and articles:
http://www.newhorizons.org/bibmishelf.html