on each of their papers. group member should be encouraged to
feel responsible for participating and for
learning.
8 The group discusses how the target
social skill has been practiced. Each
student is given a role. The teacher
gives feedback on how students did on
the target social skill.Leadership is ‘distributed.’ Teachers not
only teach language; they teach
cooperation as well. Of course, since
social skills involve the use of language,
cooperative learning teaches language for
both academic and social purposes.Once again note how cooperative learning complements methods presented in
previous chapters. For instance, cooperative learning groups can easily work on tasks
from a task-based approach to language instruction.
The same holds for the last methodological innovation we will consider in this
chapter—multiple intelligences. Teachers who adopt this approach expand beyond
language, learning strategy, and social skills training, to address other qualities of
language learners.
Multiple Intelligences
Teachers have always known that their students have different strengths. In the
language teaching field, some of the differences among students have been attributed
to students’ having different learning or cognitive styles. For instance, some students
are better visual learners than aural learners. They learn better when they are able to
read new material rather than simply listen to it. Of course, many learners can learn
equally well either way; however, it has been estimated that for up to 25 percent of the
population, the mode of instruction does make a difference in their success as learners
(Levin et al. 1974, cited in Larsen-Freeman and Long 1991). Hatch (1974) further
distinguishes between learners who are data-gatherers and those who are rule-formers.
Data-gatherers are fluent but inaccurate; rule-formers are more accurate, but often
speak haltingly.
Related work by psychologist Howard Gardner (1983, 1993, 1999, 2006) on
multiple intelligences has been influential in language teaching circles. Teachers who
recognize the multiple intelligences of their students acknowledge that students bring
with them specific and unique strengths, which are often not taken into account in
classroom situations. Gardner has theorized that individuals have at least eight^3
distinct intelligences that can be developed over a lifetime. The eight are:
1 Logical/mathematical—the ability to use numbers effectively, to see abstract
patterns, and to reason well
2 Visual/spatial—the ability to orient oneself in the environment, to create mental