Michael Berman is a leading authority on Multiple Intelligences and English Language Teaching. Michael believes that our intelligences can be developed and are not fixed. Michael also believes that we can all improve our learning if we (and our teachers!) know how we learn. The checklist which follows is taken from Michael’s book A Multiple Intelligences Road To An ELT Classroom and is based in ideas developed by Howard Gardner, the educational psychologist. Use the checklist to find about more about how you learn best. At the end of the questionnaire you will find some ideas about how to learn based on your Multiple Intelligences profile.
The following Multiple Intelligences Checklist for EFL students is adapted from an article by Mary Ann Christison published in the MEXTESOL (Mexican branch of the American Teachers Of English To Speakers Of Other Languages) Journal. When the original article was published, only seven intelligence types had been identified. More recently, the naturalist intelligence has been added to the list and the checklist has been rewritten to take this into account.
Rank each statement 0, 1, or 2. Write 0 if you disagree with the statement and write 2 if you strongly agree. Write 1 if you are somewhere in between. Then calculate your score for each intelligence type.
Interpersonal Intelligence
a. ___ I’m often the leader in activities
b. ___ I enjoy talking to my friends
c. ___ I often help my friends
d. ___ My friends often talk to me about their problems
e. ___ I’ve got a lot of friends
f. ___ I’m a member of several clubs
___ TOTAL FOR INTERPERSONAL INTELLIGENCE
Intrapersonal Intelligence
a. ___ I go to the cinema alone
b. ___ I go to the library alone to study
c. ___ I can tell you some things I’m good at doing
d. ___ I like to spend time alone
e. ___ My friends find some of my actions strange sometimes
f. ___ I learn from my mistakes
___ TOTAL FOR INTRAPERSONAL INTELLIGENCE
Logical - Mathematical Intelligence
a. ___ I often do calculations in my head
b. ___ I like to put things into categories
c. ___ I'm good at chess and/or draughts
d. ___ I like to play number games
e. ___ I love to play around with Computers
f. ___ I ask lots of questions about how things work
___ TOTAL FOR LOGICO-MATHEMATICAL INTELLIGENCE
Linguistic Intelligence
a. ___ I like to read books, magazines and newspapers
b. ___ I consider myself a good reader
c. ___ I like to tell jokes and Stories
d. ___ I can remember people's names easily
e. ___ I like to recite tongue twisters
f. ___ I have a good vocabulary in my native language
___ TOTAL FOR LINGUISTIC INTELLIGENCE
Bodily - Kinaesthetic Intelligence
a. ___ It's hard for me to sit quietly for a long time
b. ___ It's easy for me to copy exactly what other people do
c. ___ I'm good at sewing, woodwork, building or mechanics
d. ___ I'm good at Sports
e. ___ I enjoy working with my hands - working with clay or
model making, for example
f. ___ I enjoy physical exercise
___ TOTAL FOR BODILY-KINAESTHETIC INTELLIGENCE
Spatial Intelligence
a. ___ I can read maps easily
b. ___ I enjoy art activities
c. ___ I can draw well
d. ___ Videos and slides really help me to learn new Information
e. ___ I love books with pictures
f. ___ I enjoy putting puzzles together
___ TOTAL FOR SPATIAL INTELLIGENCE
Musical Intelligence
a. ___ I can hum the tunes to lots of songs
b. ___ I’m a good singer
c. ___ I play a musical instrument or sing in a choir
d. ___ I can tell when music sounds off-key
e. ___ I often tap rhythmically on the table or desk
f. ___ I often sing songs
___ TOTAL FOR MUSICAL INTELLIGENCE
Naturalist Intelligence
a. ___ I spend a lot of time outdoors
b. ___ I enjoy listening to the sounds created in the natural world; birdsong, for example
c. ___ I can identify plant life and animal species
d. ___ I can distinguish between poisonous and non-poisonous; snakes and/or between poisonous and edible mushrooms
e. ___ I enjoy observing plants and/or collecting rocks
f. ___ I’ve got green fingers - I keep pot plants at home and
have an interest in gardening, for example
___ TOTAL FOR NATURALIST INTELLIGENCE
NOW READ ON TO FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN USE YOUR SCORES TO DEVELOP AS A LEARNER.
According to Gardner, your intelligences profile is not fixed, which means that you can develop both your stronger and weaker areas. Knowing your multiple intelligences profile can also help you because you can identify the kinds of learning activities which can help you to learn well.
Interpersonal Intelligence
If you scored highly in this area, you probably enjoy working with other people and have a good understanding of how other people are feeling. In class you probably enjoy working in pairs and groups more than working on your own. When learning vocabulary, you will probably benefit from studying with a friend.
Intrapersonal Intelligence
If you scored highly in this area, you probably have a very strong sense of self-awareness and enjoy working on your own. In English lessons, your teacher might ask you to work with other students – at times you might want to ask (politely!) if you can work alone by saying “I work better when I study alone, if that ‘s OK!” Writing a private diary in English, may be a good way of developing your writing skills.
Logical-Mathematical Intelligence
If you scored highly in this area, you probably have a very logical mind which analyses processes in steps. You like clear, logical grammatical explanations: sometimes we just have to accept that language learning isn’t always logical. To understand grammar, (word order for questions for example), it might help if you analyse how sometimes we add new words (ie do/does/did) to make a question and how on other occasions we change the words order (with the verb to be).
Linguistic Intelligence
If you scored highly in this area, you probably love words and learning languages. This is obviously very helpful if you are learning English, but don’t worry if your score in this area is not your best. Many good speakers of English don’t have highly developed linguistic intelligence and your Anglolang teacher will help you find other ways to make learning enjoyable! You may find comparing your language with English an interesting and useful activity to help you learn.
Bodily-Kinaesthetic Intelligence
If you scored highly in this area, you probably use your body to express your emotions and you might find sitting still in the same seat quite difficult.
If you scored highly in this area, you might want to improve your vocabulary by working with cut-up slips of paper which you move around to create word partnerships (collocations). You may also find that your learning improves if you try to move at the same time; you could try learning word stress by making a small jump for an unstressed syllable and a big jump for a stressed syllable.
Spatial Intelligence
If you scored highly in this area, you probably have good spatial and visual awareness. You may find chess or parking your car in a small parking place easy when others find this really difficult. When you are learning vocabulary, you could try drawing a picture of the word you are learning. Using different colour ink (blue, red, black and green pens for example) will make your notes much more colourful and memorable.
Musical Intelligence
If you scored highly in this area, listening to and even playing music are probably important in your life. Try listening to music when you are studying (some people recommend Mozart) and listen to songs in English as a way of accessing the language. You may even want to write your own memorable tune (a jingle) to help you remember some difficult language.
Naturalist Intelligence
If you scored highly in this area, you probably enjoy being outside and nature in general. You are probably also good at classifying and categorising things into groups so when you are learning vocabulary, think of ways of grouping new words in ways which make sense to you.
