C L ASS Cultural Language Association Exploiting Multiple

C. L. ASS. Cultural Language Association Exploiting Multiple Intelligences in the ELT Classroom Milan - 21 November 2009 Louis Grech

C. L. ASS. Cultural Language Association Some initial thoughts… We’ve all noticed that learners learn in different ways…. apparently because they can rely on different types of intelligences simultaneously.

C. L. ASS. Cultural Language Association Of course, planning individual lessons for everyone in class to include the different learner intelligences at play is clearly impractical.

C. L. ASS. Cultural Language Association These sessions explore and describe Multiple Intelligences while suggesting practical classroom activities designed to appeal to each type of learner in our classes.

What makes a good learner?

What makes a ‘good learner’? Ø Ø curious, inquisitive a team-player motivated, has realistic expectations seeks learning opportunities outside the classroom Ø a ‘risk-taker’ Ø brings own life experiences into the classroom

What kind of learner are YOU?

1. How can other people best interpret your emotions? • a. through your facial expressions • b. from the quality of your voice • c. through your general body language

2. How do you manage to keep up with current events? • a. by reading the newspaper thoroughly when you have the time • b. by listening to the radio or watching the TV news • c. by quickly reading the paper or spending just a few minutes watching the TV news

3. What sort of driver are you? • a. you frequently check the rear view mirror and watch the road carefully • b. you turn on the radio as soon as you get into the car • c. you can’t get comfortable in the seat and continually shift position

4. How do you prefer to conduct business? • a. by having face-to-face meetings or writing letters • b. over the phone because it saves time • c. by talking while you are walking, jogging or doing something else physical

5. How do you react when you’re angry? • a. by clamming up and giving others the silent treatment • b. by quickly letting others know when you’re angry • c. by clenching your fists, grasping something tightly or storming off

6. How would you describe the way you dress? • a. a neat and tidy dresser • b. a sensible dresser • c. a comfortable dresser

7. What do you think the best way is to discipline a child? • a. to isolate the child by separating him/her from the group • b. to reason with the child and discuss the situation • c. to use acceptable forms of corporal punishment

8. How do you behave at a meeting? • a. you come prepared with notes and displays • b. you enjoy discussing issues and hearing other points of view • c. you’d rather be somewhere else and so spend your time doodling

9. What do you like doing in your free time? • a. watching TV or going to the cinema • b. listening to the radio, going to a concert or playing a musical instrument • c. engaging in a physical activity of some kind

10. What do you consider to be the best way of rewarding students? • a. writing positive comments on their work • b. giving oral praise to the student • c. a pat on the back, a hug, or some other appropriate physical action

What your score means – ‘A’ • Your MI strength is VISUAL • You learn through ‘seeing’ • Having notes and using visual aids and colour in class helps • You like everything to be written down on paper

What your score means – ‘B’ • Your MI strength is Auditory • You learn through listening • Find it easy to imitate individual sounds & patterns • Background music – ok!

What your score means – ‘C’ Your MI strength is KINESTHETIC You learn through movement; you respond well to games and role-play Sitting passively in class doesn’t appeal to you

Interpersonal Intelligence ü Are you a party animal? ü Are you a team player? ü Would you describe yourself as popular, understanding, tactful?

If your answer is ‘YES’, then you Ø learn through personal interactions Ø show a great deal of empathy for others Ø understand other people’s points of view, feelings and ideas Ø love team activities & are a good team member Ø are skilled in conflict resolution, mediation, and finding compromise

The past, present and future

English for Social Interaction Teacher: Thank you very much for your nice comments. Student: Please. Or Those little social phrases which give learners so many problems

Mix’n match the utterances with the responses 1. Can I help you? 2. Thank you so much. 3. Are you ready to order? 4. Can you help me carry this suitcase? A) I’m afraid I can’t. I’m late for my meeting. B) I’ll have the fillet steak and a glass of Merlot. C) I’m just looking, thanks. D) You’re welcome.

Can you think of an appropriate utterance for each of these responses? 1. . . . Pleased to meet you. 2. . . . Same to you! 3. . . . No, that’s all thanks. 4. . . . You too. 5. . . . That would be lovely.

Social English So, . . . I’m afraid. . . Well. . . Right / OK “It’s the little words that count. . . ” Actually . . . then. . . just. . . Anyway. . . OK? Yeah, but. . .

Fill in the blanks with: So, . . . Well, . . . Ok? /Right I’m afraid. . . then, Actually, Anyway, Yeah but. . . just. . . 1. ____ I have some bad news. 2. Can I _______ run to the kitchen and make a cup of tea. 3. A: Sicily must have been very hot. B: ____ , the nights were cold.

Fill in the blanks with: So, . . . Well, . . . Ok? /Right I’m afraid. . . then, Actually, Anyway, Yeah but. . . just. . . 4. A: How was your meal last night? B: ______ I expected something better. 5. ______ Understood? Great, we can move on. 6. ______ let’s change the subject.

Fill in the blanks with: So, . . . Well, . . . Ok? /Right I’m afraid. . . then, Actually, Anyway, Yeah but. . . just. . . 7. A: We can accept their offer of € 100. B: _____ don’t forget the 10% commission. 8. Come on _______, tell us about your new girlfriend. 9. ______, the next issue I want to talk about is…

Sounding more polite 1. Can you help me carry my suitcase? 2. ………………………. . 3. What’s your name? 4. ………………………. .

Sounding more polite 1. Can you help me carry my suitcase? 2. I was wondering if you could help me carry my suitcase. 3. What’s your name? 4. What did you say your name was?

Sounding less aggressive 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. We’re unhappy with this offer! ……………………… You don’t understand, do you? ……………………… We want a bigger discount! ……………………… I won’t accept it! ………………………

Collective Dialogues (what’s behind the 3 groups? ) ? ? ? to go on strike to have a nine-to- to be on the dole five job to have no free time to have a deadend job to do the dirty work to be at work to work like a slave to be paid by the hour to give someone to be stuck in a notice rut to work your fingers to the bone

Collective Dialogues (working on the article in English) Zero Indefinite Definite To go on strike To have a nine-tofive job To be on the dole To have no free time To have a dead-end job To do the dirty work To be at work To work like a slave To be paid by the hour To give someone notice To be stuck in a rut To work your fingers to the bone

Intrapersonal Intelligence ü are you a ‘loner’ and prefer working alone? ü do you always ask ‘difficult and uncomfortable’ questions? WHY questions? ü are you more of a ‘thinker’ than a ‘doer’?

Yes? So, you… ü may like to work alone and sometimes you may shy away from others ü are probably self-reflective ü are inwardly motivated & self-confident ü have definite, well-thought out opinions ü may benefit from lectures ü enjoy quiet, eyes-down activities

The Watchman One night, a night watchman in a factory dreamed that the plane his boss was travelling on crashed. The next morning, he told his boss about his dream. The boss, who was very superstitious, immediately cancelled his next business trip. The next day, the plane he was supposed to be flying on, did in fact crash. The boss immediately called the night watchman to his office, thanked him warmly, gave him a bonus, and then …. … fired him!

Why did the night watchman lose his job?

True or false? 1. I borrow books from my friends but sometimes forget to give them back. 2. I usually put on the heater in my bedroom in winter. 3. If it’s rainy and cold, I often head for the cinema. 4. My partner and I hate cooking so we often eat out. 5. I always stay in on Sundays to follow Italian football on TV. 6. I look after my two grandsons on Saturday mornings.

True or false? 1. I borrow books from my friend but sometimes forget to give them back. F 2. I usually put on the heater in my bedroom in winter. F 3. If it’s rainy and cold, I often head for the cinema. F 4. My partner and I hate cooking so we often eat out. T/ F 5. I nearly always on Sunday stay in to follow Italian football on TV. T 6. I look after my two grandsons on Saturday mornings. F

Tick [√] where relevant Multi-word verb give back put on head for eat out stay in look after Transitive Intransitive Separable Nonseparable

Visual-Spatial Intelligence ü Did you enjoy working with clay, coloured markers, construction paper as a child? ü do you tend to think in images and pictures? ü are you very aware of objects, shapes, colours, textures? ü do you notice patterns in the environment around you? ü do you enjoy doodling? Doing it right now?

If you’re strong in this intelligence, you Ø prefer mind maps & visual organization vs. lists Ø love to work jigsaw puzzles, read maps and find their way around new places Ø are probably excellent at performing tasks that require “seeing with the mind’s eyes”, such as visualizing, pretending, imagining, interpreting and forming mental images.

Can you unscramble this? THOUSAND WORTH A WORDS A IS PICTURE

That’s right A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

Look at this mind map….

Look at this list…. SHARK CANARY WHALE PIGEON ANT TROUT OSTRICH ELEPHANT HUMANS PARROT HONEY-BEE ROBIN SEAL FLY SWORDFISH SPIDER MONKEY TUNA BUTTERFLY SNAKE

A mind map produced in class

Put them in the picture! Some ideas for using pictures in class

What can you see in this picture? Describe it to your partner in as much detail as possible

Problems? It’s BORING!!!!! How can we make this more interesting and engaging for our students?

“You’re standing in the middle of the picture. ” 1. 2. 3. 4. What can you see? What can you smell? What can you feel? Can you hear anything? 5. You can see a small object on the ground, to your right, outside the picture. . . What is it?

Use Evocative Pictures Step 1 -- Factual Qs e. g. What can you see in the picture? Step 2 -- Interpretative Qs e. g. What in your opinion does the picture represent?

Use Abstract Pictures Step 1 -- Factual Qs • e. g. What can you see in the picture? Step 2 -- Interpretative Qs • e. g. What in your opinion does the picture represent? Step 3 -- Judgmental Qs • e. g. Do you like it? Why not?

Use CARTOONS! … with some imagination, maybe…. .

The Picnic

What are they saying?

What are they thinking?

That’s what he’s thinking!

And that’s what she’s thinking!

Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence Do you know how to ü ride a bike? ü touch type? ü parallel park your car? (I know we’re in Italy, but I didn’t say double-park!!!!) Do you enjoy ‘learning by doing? ’

Yes? So you probably … Ø like physical movement Ø like making and inventing things with your hands: hands-on activities Ø enjoy role-playing; mime; one-act plays; charades Ø may find it difficult to sit still & stick with one activity for long periods of time Ø are easily bored or distracted if you are not actively involved in what is going on around you

Modern Research indicates that after sitting on one place for about 20 minutes, the brain starts getting starved of oxygen and attention starts to wander.

Modern Research? ?

Yeah!! “What I hear, I forget, What I see, I remember, What I do, I understand. ” Confucius 551 – 470 B. C.

Everybody stand up please

Find someone who? q has been laid off q takes after either of their parents q has had their flat/house broken into q can put you up for a couple of nights q feels they should settle down in another country q has children to look after q likes to lie in on Sundays q would like to see the death penalty done away with q has been ripped off as a tourist on a holiday q has walked out of a job

tolerate, condone, accept, encourage, condemn, excuse l------------l------------l------l

Role play Complete the sentence below: Parents should _______ sex before marriage.

Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence ü do you speak more than two languages? ü do you easily learn through reading, speaking, listening and writing? ü are you very articulate and precise in expressing yourself and irritated when others are not! Do you have a knack for languages?

If you answered ‘Yes’, then you Ø tend to think in words & love learning new words Ø probably enjoy reading various kinds of literature Ø enjoy playing word games, making up stories Ø enjoy debating, creative writing, and telling jokes Ø have a high comprehension of anything you read Ø do well with written assignments

Deja vu As Emma climbed the creaking staircase, hardly daring to breathe, there was something about the dusty paintings, the dark antique furniture, the blood-red curtains, that convinced her that once, in the not longdistant past, she had been there before. With a sharp intake of breath, she turned the rusty door handle and there, in front of her, hanging on the peeling wall, there was a portrait of a handsome man staring at her…. It was her grandfather!

Lost!!

Logical-Mathematical Intelligence ü do you love numbers, mathematics and logic? ü do you tend to think more conceptually and abstractly than others? ü are you often able to see patterns and relationships that others miss?

If you’re a logical-mathematically inclined person … You probably like Ø to observe, hypothesise and conduct experiments (OHE) Ø to solve puzzles and other problems Ø benefit from the use of colours & colour patterns Ø impose order on ‘chaos’ and meaningless situations

Jazzing up boring vocabulary lists Adapted from How to Teach English (Jeremy Harmer, Longman – 1998) Our students often end up with long lists of words – unrelated words in isolation ‘collected’ during a whole week of lessons. > How can we make such lists dynamic, less boring and therefore memorable for them?

This is a typical vocabulary list Adapted from How to Teach English (Jeremy Harmer, Longman – 1998) admire attendant attractive beautiful boring cute dangerous dark-haired dark-skinned dramatic elegant event exciting experience factor fair-skinned fantastic fascinating freckles good-looking handsome impressive interesting killer leader lovely lover magnificent memorable motorway moving newscaster picturesque pretty professor protection record rugged scenic skin cancer striking stunning sunburnt sun-tanned ultraviolet victim

Look at the list and find. . . Compound words

Look at the list and find. . . Words with a suffix

Look at the list. . . How many new words can you make by adding a suffix?

Look at the list and find words with this stress pattern █▄▄

Put a tick [ √ ] where relevant Adjective attractive beautiful good-looking handsome pretty stunning ♀ ♂ Both

How much do you know about? The Articles Decide whether the following statements are true or false and give reasons for the choices you make:

True or false? 1. There are no articles in Korean, Russian, Polish and Japanese.

True or false? 1. There are no articles in Korean, Russian, Polish and Japanese. ü True

True or false? 2. Titles such as Mr are never preceded by articles.

True or false? 2. Titles such as Mr are never preceded by articles. False “I met a Mr Brown at the meeting yesterday. ” “ I finally got to know who the Mr Brown is. ”

True or false? 3. Words starting with a consonant are never preceded by the indefinite article AN.

True or false? 3. Words starting with a consonant are never preceded by the indefinite article AN. False What about “an honest person”, “an hour” ?

True or false? 4. Both the indefinite and definite article are among the 10 most frequently used words in English.

True or false? 4. Both the indefinite and definite article are among the 10 most frequently used words in English. True

True or false? 5. Nouns that are uncountable in English are often countable in other languages.

True or false? 5. Nouns that are uncountable in English are often countable in other languages. True ‘furniture’ and ‘advice’, for e. g. , are uncountable in English but countable in French, Italian, Spanish. . .

True or false? 6. There are 3 articles in English – A, AN and THE.

True or false? 6. There are 3 articles in English – A, AN and THE. False What about the zero article?

Naturalist Intelligence ü are you ‘green’? ü do recognise, appreciate, and understand the natural environment around you? ü are you keen on the outdoors, animals, plants, and almost any natural object? ü are you affected by such things as the weather?

Yes? Then you love to…. Ø impose order on seemingly ‘disordered things’ Ø categorise Ø classify Ø notice relationships

What is the odd one out? 1 a) b) c) d) She paid her employees well. She paid her bills promptly. She paid for a round of drinks. She paid a high price for her mistake. 2 a) Tom never changes his clothes. b) It’s about time he bought a new pair of trousers. c) These scissors are useless. d) Meg bought some new shirts.

What is the odd one out? 3 a) poached b) fried c) boiled d) scrambled e) roasted 4 a) I must have something to drink. b) She must have lost the address. c) Jean must have been here too. d) That must have been awful. e) The thieves must have got in through the window.

What’s the problem here? 1. Yesterday, I ate some lovely chips and fish. 2. On New Years Eve, we drank champagne from some expensive crystal mugs. 3. I prefer white and black photography.

The Collocation Game

Musical-Rhythmic Intelligence This is the ‘knowing’ that happens through sound and vibration. You will, of course, love music… But it is not limited to music and rhythm; it deals with the whole realm of sound, tones and beats.

If you are strong in this intelligence area, you may Ø be very sensitive to sounds in the environment Ø often reproduce a rhythmic pattern after hearing it only once Ø study and work better with music in the background Ø skilled at mimicking sounds, language accents, and others’ speech patterns

Colours Grey Green Red Blue Yellow White dark red

Colours, sounds & letters Grey / eɪ / Green / iː / Red / e / Blue / uː / Yellow / əʊ / White / aɪ / dark red / ɑː /

Colours, sounds & letters Grey / eɪ / Green / iː / Red / e / a, h, j, k b, c, d, e, f, l, m, n, g, p, t, v, s, x, z Blue / uː / Yellow / əʊ / White / aɪ / dark red / ɑː / q, u, w o i, y r

What’s the problem here? • Last day of the course; a Korean student says ‘Thank you’ Sun Yung Lee: “Mr. Louis. My last day. Good school. Learn a lot. Teachers very good! You do great job. You must be IMPOTENT man!”

Wrong word stress!! (I hope!) IMpotent for im. PORtant

Word Stress Task Stress Patterns Countries Food 3. 4. █▄ Names 1. 1 hbn□□█ 2. 5. █ ▄█ ▄█▄ █▄▄ Louis Jean Karl Irene Daniela Jennifer

Sounds Vocabulary (adapted from Pronunciation Games – T. Bowen & J. Marks Longman) Sound Food Language Parts of the body Sport Animal / i: / cheese Chinese knee frisbee / aɪ / /e/ /ɑ: /

Sentence stress I want you to buy me a bunch of red roses.

Emotional Intelligence The so-called 9 th intelligence. It simply incorporates & expands Inter- and Intrapersonal Intelligences, and highlights the importance students’ emotions have on the whole learning process.

You cannot teach a language … You can only create the conditions… Under which it can be learnt. (Von Humboldt – 19 th century)

How? Ø creating rapport and a warm atmosphere Ø accepting students as people Ø accepting their mistakes as something positive Ø moving away from ‘the tyranny of correctness’ This is much more important than any teaching model(s) we choose to adopt.

Conclusion. . . So, do we • put our learners in categories? • plan individual lessons for everyone in class to take into account the unique profile of each of our learners? !

That’s impractical… • … just include materials & activities designed to appeal to each of the 8 types of MIs in every lesson we give. • That way, we reach and engage all of our students.

C. L. ASS. Cultural Language Association Thank you & Happy teaching! Louis Grech NOVEMBER 2009