英美文学教学利用多元智能理论的探讨

Chapter one    Introduction 
 
Students’ abilities can not be fully cultivated to some extent in the course of British & American  literature  (B-A  literature).  In  recent  years,  many  domestic  experts  hold  that  B-A literature is one of the influential specialized courses for English major’s teaching and years of  teaching  practice  shows  that  it  has  immeasurable  effect  on  improving  students’  human quality and their basic language skills, so its important position in English professional talents training should be recognized as soon as possible (Gu Hong, Du Zhiqing, 2004). Certainly, the practice of most of the B-A literature teaching reforms in China has made a breakthrough. For example, at present, many colleges and universities regard B-A literature as an excellent course. The construction of teaching team, the reform of teaching method, the construction of teaching  material  and  the  using  of  modern  education  means  have  decreased  B-A  literature course’s “marginalized” status in the English majors in colleges and universities. More and more  importance  is  being  attached  to  B-A  literature  course.  While  it  must  be  admitted  that there still exists a number of problems in literature course in many colleges and universities in China, which can be described as follows: knowledge-focused teaching goal, teaching method which  teacher  teaches  and  the  students  only  listen  and  the  final-paper-based  summative evaluation way, all of which neglect the students’ abilities development to some extent. It is not uncommon that the B-A literature teacher teaches in front of the class when the students are  busily  taking  notes  without  thinking  by  themselves.  Besides,  B-A  literature  course materials are very limited, especially the network resources, the teaching courseware, audio and  video  materials.  As  a  result,  the  classroom  teaching  of  B-A  literature  is  not  very encouraging and the classroom atmosphere is not very active. More importantly, students can not participate actively in the class of B-A literature which they could have done. Only when the  students  follow  the  B-A  literature  teacher  closely  can  they  really  gain  some  literature knowledge  from  the  class.  In  other  words,  students’  verbal/linguistic  intelligence  and logical/mathematical  intelligence  are  emphasized,  while  students’  other  intelligences  are neglected, which leads to students’ potential strong intelligences are overlooked and they are not energetic and enthusiastic enough in learning. As a consequence, students’ interests cannot be activated, let alone the cultivation of the students’ comprehensive abilities.
............

Chapter Two    Literature Review

2.1 Basic Principles and Viewpoints of MI Theory
  Intelligence has long been a hot research topic for researchers and educators. Although numerous definitions of intelligence have been proposed, no consensus has been reached by scholars.  According  to  “Mainstream  Science  on  Intelligence”,  an  editorial  statement  by  a group of researchers, the definition of intelligence is that “A very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend  complex  ideas,  learn  quickly  and  learn  from  experience.  It  is  not  merely  book learning,  a  narrow  academic  skill,  or  test-taking  smarts.  Rather,  it  reflects  a  broader  and deeper  capability  for  comprehending  our  surroundings—‘catching  on,’  ‘making  sense’  of things,  or  ‘figuring  out’  what  to  do.”  (Gottfredson,  1997,  13-23).  Alfred  Binet  holds  that: intelligence  is  “judgment,  otherwise  called  “good  sense,”  “practical  sense,”  “initiative,”  the faculty  of  adapting  one’s  self  to  circumstances  ...  auto-critique.”(Binet,  1916,  37-90). According  to  “Intelligence:  Knowns  and  Unknowns”,  a  report  published  by  the  Board  of Scientific Affairs of the American Psychological Association, the definition of intelligence is that  With  the  publication  of  Frames  of  Mind  in  1983,  Gardner  put  forward  a  definition  of intelligence, MIT, which challenged traditional belief of intelligence which can be measured through intelligence test questionnaire. He said that “It is of the utmost importance that we recognize  and  nurture  all  of  the  varied  human  intelligences,  and  all  of  the  combinations  of intelligences.  We  are  all  so  different  largely  because  we  all  have  different  combinations  of intelligences.  If  we  recognize  this,  I  think  we  will  have  at  least  a  better  chance  of  dealing appropriately with the many problems that we face in the world” (Hao Huizhen, Pan Bingxin, 2005, 309). He defines intelligence like this 

2.2 The Research Situation of MI Theory both at Home and Abroad
Since the advent of MIT, there are so many theoretical and practical researches related to psychology  and  education  focused  on  it  that  the  most  authoritative  Education  Resources Information  Center  (ERIC)  in  America  has  listed  Multiple  Intelligence  (MI)  as  a  single catalogue  and  code  it  for  the  convenience  of  reading  and  researching.  For  example,  the SUMIT  (Schools  Using  Multiple  Intelligences  Theory)  project,  undertaken  by  Mindy Kornhaber and her colleagues at Harvard’s Project Zero, has studied 41 schools in the United States  that  have  applied  MIT  for  at  least  3  years.  The  majority  of  the  schools  reported  the improvements  of  students’  performances,  their  discipline  and  parent  participation. Specializing  in  applying  MIT  to  classroom  teaching,  David  Lazear  proposes  three  kinds  of teaching—teaching  for  multiple  intelligences,  teaching  through  multiple  intelligences  and teaching multiple intelligences in his book Eight Ways of Teaching: The Artistry of Teaching with  Multiple  Intelligence  (2004).  Besides,  David  Lazear  puts  forward  two  methods  which integrate MIT in teaching—eight-in lessons and intelligence-focused lessons. David Lazear’s ideas shed light on how MIT can be applied to teaching. In the book Multiple Intelligences and  Student  Achievement:  Success  Stories  from  Six  Schools  (1999),  Linda  Campbell  and Bruce Campbell reported positive results experienced by students and teachers of six different schools which have implemented MIT showing students’ improved self-confidence, increased enthusiasm,  enhanced  achievements,  teachers’  developed  creativity,  boosted  faculty  morale, and so on. The latest research on the practical application of MI theory, Multiple Intelligences around the World (2009), integrates new practical research results in more than 20 countries and regions and it first covers all the four continents’ researches in the world since its birth. In the book, many multiple intelligent practitioners provide their suggestions to show how the multiple  intelligences  theory  could  be  applied  on  the  international  stage,  such  as  America, Japan  and  China.  Besides,  many  countries  share  their  successful  stories  in  the  education reform.  The  faculty  of  New  City  School  in  US,  for  example,  has  tried  to  explore  how  to increase  students’  learning  by  using  MIT  for  twenty  years.  The  exploration  has  resulted  in MIT  becoming  an  integral  aspect  of  the  school  culture.  Today  MIT  frames  pedagogy  and assessment, informal dialogues among and between educators and parents have had a positive impact on faculty collegiality. When the theory is treasured by western countries, its concept and spirit are also transmitted to China.

Chapter Three    Research Design ................................................13
3.1   Research Focuses ............................................14
3.2   Subjects ......................................14

Chapter  Four   The  Empirical  Study  of  MI  Theory  in  B-A Literature Teaching ..... 22
4.1   The Design of the MI-based E-A Literature Teaching Mode ......................22
4.2   The Application of the MI-based Mode in B-A Literature Teaching at Handan College.24
Chapter Five    Data Analysis and Discussion..............................36
5.1   The Data Analysis .....................................36
5.2   The Discussion of the Integration of MI-based Mode with B-A Literature Teaching...57

Chapter Five    Data Analysis and Discussion

5.1 The Data Analysis 
The  questionnaire  (Details  in  Appendix  1)  is  adapted  from  Thomas  Armstrong’s questionnaire on students’ multiple intelligences profiles in the classroom (1994). To ensure the validity and reliability of the data, the questionnaire is designed in Chinese. Furthermore, the  author  explains  what  multiple  intelligences  are  to  the  students  before  conducting  the questionnaire; and emphasizes that when they answer the questionnaire, they could respond to the questions by their true feelings without any hesitation since their answers have nothing to do  with  their  scores.  Seven  intelligences  are  printed  in  the  questionnaire  and  five  to  eight descriptions for each of these intelligences are provided. There are 0 to 4 scores representing five degrees from week to strong respectively, which students can mark according to their real situations. As for the intelligence with five descriptions, the students who get more than 13 scores  on  it  can  be  considered  as  having  possessed  such  kind  of  intelligence  strongly. Likewise,  the  students  who  get  16  scores  on  the  intelligence  with  six  descriptions  can  be thought are strong in the intelligence; The students who get 19 scores on the intelligence with seven  descriptions  can  be  thought  are  strong  in  the  intelligence;  the  students  who  get  22 scores on the intelligence with eight descriptions can be thought are strong in the intelligence. This  questionnaire  is  employed  to  help  the  author  get  a  picture  of  each  student’s  multiple intelligences distributions: what each student’s strong intelligences are and what their weak intelligences  are.  So  the  questionnaire  facilitates  the  author  in  her  designing  activities  for MI-based  B-A  literature  teaching.  The  number  of  students  who  have  strengths  in  certain intelligence  (i.e.  the  mark  of  a  certain  intelligence  is  more  than  13,16,19  or  22  for intelligences with 5 descriptions, 6 descriptions, 7 descriptions and 8 descriptions respectively) and the proportion it takes among all the students is vividly displayed through the result of the questionnaire  on  students’  MI  distribution.  The  related  data  is  described  in  detail  in  the following table.

5.2   The  Discussion  of  the  Integration  of  MI-based  Mode  with  B-A Literature Teaching
The integration of MI-based mode with B-A literature teaching is very necessary which is  explained  in  detail  as  follows.  In  traditional  B-A  literature  classes,  teachers’  talking  time dominants  the  whole  class  and  students  are  always  busy  with  taking  notes  without  other opportunities  of  participation.  The  classroom  teaching  of  B-A  literature  is  not  very encouraging  and  the  classroom  atmosphere  is  not  very  active.  Consequently,  students’ interests  cannot  be  activated,  let  alone  the  cultivation  of  students’  comprehensive  abilities. Students can only be side-developed in such a teaching mode, which cannot meet the need of promoting students’ around development advocated in modern time. However, the integration of  MI-based  mode  with  B-A  literature  teaching  can  change  this  situation.  Different  from traditional view of intelligence, which attaches too much importance to linguistic intelligence and  logical  intelligence  and  neglects  other  intelligences,  MIT  suggests  that  people  have multiple intelligences and they should all be given enough value. So, teachers should design diverse  teaching  activities  as  many  as  possible  basing  on  multiple  intelligences  to  satisfy students’  distinct  intelligence  needs.  In  this  way,  students’  interests  can  be  activated  and learning efficiency can be enhanced. The integration of MI-based mode with B-A literature teaching  will  change  the  unmotivated  way  of  B-A  literature  teaching  and  help  students achieve a better learning effect. So the process of students’ multiple intelligences development is the process of the cultivation of students’ comprehensive qualities. Hence, the integration of MI-based mode with B-A literature teaching is necessary.
..............

Chapter Six    Conclusion

Lasting about one semester, this empirical study attempts to attest the effectiveness of the application  of  MIT  in  the  teaching  of  B-A  literature  and  to  testify  that  the  MI-based  B-A literature teaching mode can promote students’ comprehensive abilities development. With the aid  and  cooperation  of  the  related  participants,  this  empirical  research  is  successfully conducted and has been conformed to be reasonable and well-formed. Therefore, the major findings of this research can be summarized as follows.    First and foremost, the MI-based B-A literature teaching mode proves to be effective in arousing their learning interests, improving students’ communicative ability, creative ability, cooperative  ability  and  conductive  abilities.  In  addition,  students’  IT  ability  has  enhanced greatly. In order to testify the effectiveness of applying MIT into the teaching of B-A literature in this research, an empirical study was conducted in one class with 37 students of English majors in schools of foreign languages in Handan College. Data obtained illustrates that the mean score of the test of the experimental class after the experiment is notably higher than that  before  the  experiment,  besides,  students  become  more  communicative,  creative, cooperative and conductive in leaning activities. All these changes imply that the MI-based B-A  literature  teaching  mode  is  effective  in  arousing  students’  learning  interest,  improving students’ communicative ability, creative ability, cooperative ability and conductive abilities. What’s more, in the MI-based B-A literature classes, the textbook is not the sole material of knowledge,  the  teacher  is  not  the  only  knowledge  provider,  yet  it  is  the  students  who  also search  many  novel  materials  through  the  Internet  and  make  courseware  by  themselves. Therefore, student’s information technology has enhanced during the process of searching and collecting materials by themselves for learning.
............

参考文献（略）