Teaching English Reading through MI Theory in Primary Schools

The theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI theory), put forward by Gardner in 1983, claims that each person possesses different combinations of nine intelligences. In education, it advocates that teachers should address students’ personal uniqueness and provide a wide range of intelligence-oriented activities and experiences to facilitate learning, which is consistent with the core idea of the National English Curriculum Standards, namely, English teaching is not only for knowledge, but for the all-round development and the individuality of every student as well. The author conducted an empirical research about application of MI theory in Primary School English class. Two parallel classes were chosen, and one class was taught under the guidance of MI theory, and final evaluations of the two classes were conducted by applying post-tests and interviews. The research data showed that MI-based reading contributed significantly to arousing pupils’ interest toward English reading and improving pupils’ reading proficiency.