Multiple Intelligences Revisited
by Michael Berman
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As well as there being a case for adding Spiritual Intelligence to Gardner's list, it can also be argued that there is a Metaphoric Intelligence. Dr Jeannette Littlemore, in a recent contribution to Humanizing Language Teaching (2001a), made a case for their being a 'Metaphoric Intelligence' (an ability to comprehend and produce novel metaphors) and suggested that this might bring a number of benefits to the language learning process. She claims to provide theoretical and empirical evidence showing that metaphoric intelligence does indeed meet Gardner's eight criteria for the existence of an intelligence type. However, Gardner himself makes no mention of Metaphoric Intelligence and it is still open to debate whether it exists or not. Moreover, a case can be made for what has been called metaphoric Intelligence having points in common with Zohar's 'Spiritual Intelligence', such as an ability to see a connection between diverse phenomena. Whether we view metaphoric intelligence as an acquired skill, or as a distinct intelligence, the fact remains that it is likely to have a number of useful applications in language learning. It should enrich language production and facilitate the comprehension of metaphoric expressions. It is therefore likely to contribute positively to an overall level of communicative competence.

Does the fact that we each have a unique profile mean that we should plan individual lessons for everyone in the class to take this into account? Clearly this would be impractical and the solution lies in including material designed to appeal to each of the types in every lesson we give. The table presented below lists classroom activities that cater for the different Intelligence types. However, this classification is clearly subjective and dependent on individual teaching styles. Moreover, it should also be pointed out that a number of the activities cater for more than one Intelligence type and could consequently be placed in more than one category:

Activities to develop the Intellligences

Linguistic Intelligence: group discussions and organized debates / reading / storytelling / completing worksheets / word building games / giving presentations and reports / producing summaries / journal writing / listening to lectures.

Logical-mathematical Intelligence: logic puzzles / problem solving activities / logical-sequential presentations / guided discovery / ordering, matching and gap fill activities / computer games / utilizing statistics to develop arguments / cultural comparisons and contrasts.

Visual/Spatial Intelligence: charts / graphs and diagrams / mind maps / peripherals / storyboards / videos / illustrating concepts and things / reading maps and interpreting directions.

Bodily-kinesthetic Intelligence: Circle Dancing / Relaxation Exercises / Brain Gym / Craftwork / Flashcards / acting out an event or thing / cooperative or competitive games like classroom board races.

Musical Intelligence: Songs / Background Music / Jazz Chants / creating songs or jingles to summarize concepts or ideas.

Interpersonal Intelligence: Circle Time / group work / paired activities / brainstorming / peer teaching / questionnaires, surveys and polls / board games / interactive software programmes / team problem solving / simulations / group writing projects.

Intrapersonal Intelligence: project work / independent study and individual instruction / monitoring of own skills / researching and online activities / essay writing / learner diaries / personal goal setting / pole-bridging activities / reflective learning activities.

Naturalist Intelligence: classifying & categorizing activities / Background Music - in the form of sounds created in the natural world / hands-on learning / and taking nature walks or field trips.

Spiritual Intelligence: guided visualisation / storytelling / promoting reflective learning by asking 'Why?' or 'What if?' questions.

Metaphoric intelligence: the use of extended metaphors in debates / guesswork / 'think aloud' activities where the learners work out the meanings of metaphors together / activities using the internet, where the learners look up the word in google search images, find and choose a picture corresponding to its literal meaning and create a booklet containing these pictures, with the word in context, in its metaphorical sense typed underneath it (eg 'target', or 'bandwagon')

It is clear that unless we teach multi-modally and cater for all the intelligence types in each of our lessons, we will fail to reach all the learners in the group whichever approach to teaching we adopt. Another reason for teaching multi-modally is that with high levels of stimulus and challenge there are higher ratios of synapses (connections) to the neurons in the brain. This means more routes for higher order cognitive functioning. The optimal conditions for synaptic growth would include multiple complex connective challenges where, in learning, we are actively engaged in multi-sensory immersion experiences.

MI theory, according to Gardner, is an endorsement of three key propositions:

• We are not all the same.
• We do not all have the same kinds of minds.
• Education works most effectively if these differences are taken into account rather than denied or ignored.

He suggests that the challenge of the next millennium is whether we can make these differences central to teaching and learning or whether we will instead continue to treat everyone in a uniform way. Gardner proposes "individually configured education" - an education that takes individual differences seriously and crafts practices that serve different kinds of minds equally well. Hopefully this book will go some way towards promoting that state of affairs.

"Teaching is only demonstrating that it is possible. Learning is making it possible for yourself."

taken from "The Pilgrimage" by Paulo Coelho

Bibliography

Berman, Michael. 1998. A Multiple Intelligences Road to an ELT Classroom, Carmarthen: Crown House Publishing

Berman, Michael. 2001. ELT Through Multiple Intelligences. London: NetLearn Publications.

Berman, Michael. 2001. Intelligence Reframed for ELT London: The Golem Press

Gardner, Howard. 1983. Frames of mind. The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books.

Gardner, Howard. 1999. Intelligence Reframed. Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century. New York: Basic Books.

Goleman, Daniel. 1996. Emotional Intelligence. London: Bloomsbury

Littlemore, Jeanette. March 2001. An article in Humanising Language Teaching. Canterbury: Pilgrims

Zohar D. & Marshall I. 2000. Spiritual Intelligence The Ultimate Intelligence London: Bloomsbury

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