Multiple Intelligences as Strategy for Teaching EFL to high school graduates

Thus the main provisions of this method can be conveniently summarized in the following way:

Fluency on four skills with initial emphasis on listening and speaking.

Formative function: understanding culture through language.

Pros:

1.Useful language learnt from outset.

2.Good pronunciation achieved through sound discrimination and auditory practice.

3.Materials especially devised on contrastive analysis rather than total structures –presentation based on frequency counts and utility.

4.Reading and writing not neglected but postponed to serve as reinforcement.

5.Highly motivating: learner senses achievement from beginning through practical use and participation.

6.A-LM requires and encourages use of simple and mechanical aids.

Cons:

1.Lack of spontaneity if learning is overmechanical.

2.Reliance on inductive process dangerous.

3.Time lag between oral and written work: dependence on ear alone can lead to insecurity – emotional dislike of aural-oral work and invention of graphic equivalents.

4.A-LM for all students? Average student does best, intelligent student border?

5.Makes considerable demand on the teacher: preparation/drilling/imagination.

6.Is order of presentation natural?

7.Does A-LM produce language illiterates –fluent speakers who cannot read or write?

Possible remedies:1.Avoid dull drills –contextualize: use variety.

2.Practice should be meaningful and point of drill should be explained to the learner and understood.

3.Time lag must vary according to situation – in some cases oral/written work side be side.

4.Intelligent students should be told that practice makes perfect – hence importance of fluency, clarity and precision.

5.Order of presentation probably logical though analogy with child learner not relevant. Adult is trained to think and use books/dictionaries, but without first learning how to pronounce words he will not learn how to read well.

6.Experience showed that A-LM trainer learner did better is all skills than traditional counterpart except in writing.

Though the emphases at the beginning are strongly on listening and speaking, no devaluation of literature is implied. It appears that mastery of sound system of a language is essential for efficient reading and for appreciation of literature. One of the qualities that makes a work of literature great is the choice of words and phrases, and one of the factors that governs this choice is how they sound. “To read a work of literature without any idea of what it sounded like to the writer is to be as handicapped as the tone-deaf listening to music or the colour-blind looking at a painting”.