Application and Impact of Multiple Intelligences in Foreign Language Teaching

Abstract

In 1983, Howard Gardner published in his book, Frames of Mind, a theory that has revolutionized the vision of the academic world, on the intelligence concept. Since then, it continues to create uncertainties, which open the way to different investigations. The focus of the following study was to observe the existence of the relationship between the implementation of strategies that make use of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences (TMI) and the development of three of the eight existing types; these were the verbal-linguistic intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence and interpersonal intelligence. This application was made using Foreign Language Teaching (FLT), in this case English as the language. The study also investigated the relationship between the use of these strategies and the improvement of the learning process by FLT. Data collection was performed over a period of one month using a pre and post-test; these data were analysed statistically. The results revealed that there were no significant differences in the results of the studied groups, so it is concluded a study of one month is not enough, it is necessary a longer term intervention, to produce the development of the MI and to verify the improvement in the learning of the foreign language.