Multiple Intelligences as Strategy for Teaching EFL to high school graduates

Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence is the ability to use one's mental abilities to coordinate one's own bodily movements and the ability to handle objects skillfully. This intelligence challenges the popular belief that mental and physical activity are unrelated.

People such as actors, dancers, swimmers, acrobats, athletes, jugglers,

instrumentalists and artisans may exhibit developed bodily-kinesthetic intelligence.

2.1.8 Naturalistic Intelligence

The following definition is an abbreviation and adaptation by J. Keith Rogers and based upon his study of Howard Gardner's theory:

Naturalistic intelligence is the ability to understand, relate to, categorize, classify, comprehend, and explain the things encountered in the world of nature.

People such as farmers, ranchers, hunters, gardeners, and animal handlers may exhibit developed naturalistic intelligence.

Although the intelligences are anatomically separated from each other, Gardner claims that the seven intelligences very rarely operate independently. Rather, theintelligences are used concurrently and typically complement each other as individuals develop skills or solve problems. For example, a dancer can excel in his art only if he has

1) strong musical intelligence to understand the rhythm and

variations of the music,

2) interpersonal intelligence to understand how he can inspire or emotionally move his audience through his movements, as well as

3) bodily-kinesthetic intelligence to provide him with the agility and coordination to complete the movements successfully.

Basis for Intelligence

Gardner argues that there is both a biological and cultural basis for the multiple intelligences. Neurobiological research indicates that learning is an outcome of the modifications in the synaptic connections between cells. Primary elements of different types of learning are found in particular areas of the brain where corresponding transformations have occurred. Thus, various types of learning results in synaptic connections in different areas of the brain. For example, injury to the Broca's area of the brain will result in the loss of one's ability to verbally

communicate using proper syntax. Nevertheless,this injury will not remove the patient's understanding of correct grammar and word usage.

In addition to biology, Gardner (1983) argues that culture also plays a large role in the development of the intelligences. All societies value different types of intelligences.

The cultural value placed upon the ability to perform certain tasks provides the motivation to become skilled in those areas. Thus, while particular intelligences might be highly evolved in many people of one culture, those same intelligences might not be as developed in the individuals of another.

2.2. Psychological analysis of Gardner’s Theory

Despite swings of the pendulum between theoretical and applied concerns, the concept of intelligence has remained central to the field of psychology. In the wake of the Darwinian revolution, when scientific psychology was just beginning, many scholars became interested in the development of intelligence across species. The late 19th and early 20th centuries were punctuated by volumes that delineated levels of

intelligence across species and within the human species . Francis Galton (cousin of Charles Darwin) was perhaps the first psychologically oriented scientist to try to measure the intellect directly. Though

Galton (1870) had a theoretical interest in the concept of intelligence, his work was by no means unrelated to practical issues. A committed eugenicist, he sought to measure intelligence and hoped, through proper "breeding," to increase the overall intelligence of the population.

During the following half century, many of the most gifted and influential