YEAR TWO Second Language Acquisition ACADEMIC YEAR 2011-2012
#13: Intelligence
1. Defining intelligence
The notion of intelligence has become an inseparable part of our life having a direct effect
on social status, educational opportunities, and career choices. An average person associates
"intelligent" with synonyms such as "smart", "wise", "educated", "logical", "with quick mind",
though it is not easy to define what intelligence really is. Indeed, as Reid claims, "probably
no aspect of contemporary psychology is more misunderstood by the general public than
intelligence" (1998: 1). A dictionary definition (Longman Advanced American Dictionary,
2000: 750) states that it is "the ability to learn, understand, and think about things", but
intelligence is also referred to as the ability to solve problems, utilise logic and think
critically. A person s intelligence is contained in his or her general intellect. In other words, it
is the way every one of us behaves in everyday life situations. The way we comprehend,
examine and respond to outside stimuli depends on how our intellect is constructed.
By and large, scientists recognise two different types of intellectual ideals: the "symbol
analyst" and the "master of change". The former one could sit in front of thousands of
numbers and words, usually displayed on a computer screen, and find the meaning of this
string of symbols. The latter one could acquire new information, solve problems, easily and
flexibly co-operate with other people in various circumstances. Similarly, psychologists
perceive intelligence in two different ways. The first theory refers to intelligent acts such as
writing a book or designing a new computer. The other approach is more complex and
refers to mental processes which lead to intelligent acts such as inferring, analysing, or
deducing.
2. The study of intelligence: Psychometric tradition
Psychometric tradition represents a branch of psychology which has laid emphasis on
developing tests in order to measure the level of intelligence. The history of psychometric
research goes back to the 1860s, when Charles Darwin established the scientific case for the
origin and evolution of all species. However, it was Francis Galton who first assembled
empirical evidence of intellectual differences among individuals. Particularly interested in
genius, eminence, and other remarkable accomplishments, he developed statistical methods
of ranking human beings in terms of their physical and intellectual power. It was thought
that intellect could be estimated by various tasks of sensory discriminations (for example the
ability to distinguish among lights, weights, and tones). Later on this rather insufficient and
artificial method of assessing intelligence was replaced by measurements of more complex
capacities such as language and abstraction. That is when the first intelligence tests were
designed.
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3. Measuring IQ
Early in the 20th century a French psychologist Alfred Binet designed tests which were to
predict children s performance at school. Binet's work was continued by a German
psychologist Wilhelm Stern, who invented the so-called intelligence quotient (IQ).
Mathematically, it stood for the ratio of one's mental age to one s chronological age, with the
ratio to be multiplied by 100. IQ is still regarded as a standard procedure in this type of
testing, while someone scoring above 130 is thought to be very intelligent. Developed by
American psychologists Lewis Terman and Robert Yerkes, IQ tests became very popular in
the 1920s and 1930s. As pointed out by Gardner (1993: 13), "by the mid-1920s, the
intelligence test had become a fixture in educational practice in the United States and
throughout much of western Europe".
Yet intelligence tests have always been a highly controversial issue. Though accepted and
widely used, they were often questioned in terms of their validity and relevance, in particular
for superficiality and possible cultural biases (e.g. "intelligence is what the tests test"). The
American educational psychologist Howard Gardner argues that such tests "have predictive
power for success in schooling, but relatively little predictive power outside the school
contexts, especially when more potent factors like social and economic background have
been taken into account" (Gardner, 1983:16). Especially ever since the idea of multiple
intelligences was put forth, educators and psychologists have been expressing reservations
towards this conventional form. More and more people realise that such tests do little to
judge a learner's potential. What they can do is demonstrate whether or not a child is good
at standardised tests.
4. Multiple intelligences (Gardner 1983; 1993; 1999)
For Howard Gardner, the scope of psychometric tests is much too narrow. Instead of relying
on the results of psychometric instruments, he invented a new way of perceiving an
individual s intelligence. In his book Frames of Mind (1983), Gardner came up with the
theory of multiple intelligences. In brief, it is a pluralised way of understanding the intellect.
He claims that humans do not possess a single intelligence, but a range of intelligences.
Originally, Gardner grouped human capabilities into seven categories, viz.:
·ð verbal/linguistic ·ð musical/rhythmic
·ð logical/mathematical ·ð interpersonal
·ð visual/spatial ·ð intrapersonal
·ð bodily/kinaesthetic
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Multiple intelligences are the different skills and talents a learner uses to make products
and solve problems - to demonstrate learning (Fleetham 2006: 10). All people have those
intelligences, albeit in varying degrees: in each person one (or more) of them is more
pronounced. Gardner has since added an eighth intelligence which he calls naturalist
intelligence (Gardner 1993) to account for the ability to recognise and classify patterns in
nature. In his later book, Intelligence Reframed (1999) he added another intelligence:
existential. He explains his view thus: "human mind is better thought of as a series of
relatively separate faculties, with only loose and non-predictable relations with one another,
than a single, all-purpose machine that performs steadily at a certain horsepower,
independent of content and context" (1993: 32). Brooks Peterson has added cultural
intelligence (Peterson 2004), while Daniel Goleman has added emotional intelligence
(Goleman 1996). This includes the ability to empathise, control impulse, and self-motivate.
Consequently, Gardner suggests that all people possess intelligences which are better or
worse developed, depending on each person's individual profile. He challenged the
traditional way of assessing people by the IQ test score and regarding them intelligent or
not.
Since the emergence of the concept of Multiple Intelligences several authors have supported
Howard Gardner s challenge of IQ tests. For example, Fleetham (2006: 19) writes:
Society adopted (and still values) IQ because it measures things that society values.
And it's very easy to understand - the higher the number, the higher the intelligence
(or at least, the more test questions answered correctly). Such a straightforward
measure has its place - IQ measures a valuable set of skills. But it is a narrow set,
and if society's view of 'intelligence' is to expand to include all skills and talents, then
society must learn to value all skills and talents equally.
Furthermore, Armstrong (2009: 6) has pointed out that Howard Gardner
& seriously questioned the validity of determining intelligence through the practice of
taking individuals out of their natural learning environment and asking them to do
isolated tasks they d never done before and probably would never choose to do
again. Instead, Gardner suggested that intelligence has more to do with the capacity
for (1) solving problems and (2) fashioning products in a context-rich and naturalistic
setting.
Finally, McKenzie (2005: 3) expresses satisfaction with the MI theory in the following words:
Ever since I was first introduced to Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences
(MI), my views of intelligence and instruction have changed. Where I once was trained
to see learning deficits, I now recognize untapped potential. Old instructional
practices have given way to new approaches to teaching and learning. It has become
dear to me over time that, while Gardner was proposing a theory of intelligence, its
best application in the classroom is as a learning theory. There are entirely new paths
to learning, paths that have long gone unexplored. Along the way, many students
have been left behind, unable to follow the traditional pathways to education.
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A few constructive conclusions can be drawn from research on MI for language pedagogy. For
instance, Harmer (2001: 47) writes that if we accept that different intelligences predominate in
different people, it suggests that the same learning task may not be appropriate for all of our
students. While learners with strong logical/mathematical intelligence might respond well to a
complex grammar explanation, different students might need the comfort of diagrams and
physical demonstration because their strength is in the visual/spatial area. Still different
learners, who have a strong interpersonal intelligence, may require a more interactive climate if
their learning is to be effective.
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REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
Armstrong, T. 2009. Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom. 3rd Edition. Alexandria, VA:
ASCD.
Baum, S., Viens, J. & Slatin, B. 2005. Multiple Intelligences in the Elementary Classroom. A
Teacher s Toolkit. New York: Teachers College Press.
Carter, P. 2007. IQ and Personality Tests. London: Kogan Page.
Fleetham, M. 2006. Multiple Intelligences in Practice. Enhancing Self-esteem and Learning in
the Classroom. Stafford: Network Continuum Education.
Flynn, J. R. 2007. What Is Intelligence? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gardner, H. 1983. Frames of Mind. The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. New York: Basic
Books.
Gardner, H. 1993. Multiple Intelligences. The Theory of Practice. New York: Basic Books.
Gardner, H. 1999. Intelligence Reframed. New York: Basic Books.
Goleman, D. 1996. Emotional Intelligence. Why Can it Matter More than IQ? Bloomsbury.
Harmer, J. 2001. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Third Edition. Harlow:
Longman.
McKenzie, W. 2005. Multiple Intelligences and Instructional Technology. 2nd Edition. Eugene,
OR: ISTE Publications.
Peterson, B. 2004. Cultural Intelligence. A Guide to Working with People from Other Cultures.
Yarmouth, MA: Intercultural Press.
Reid, J. M. (Ed.) 1998. Understanding Learning Styles in the Second Language Classroom.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents.
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