The Weekly Column

Article 7, April 2000

HOW TO CATER FOR KINESTHETIC INTELLIGENCE

Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, according to Howard Gardner, entails the potential of using one’s whole body or parts of the body to solve problems or fashion products.

The areas in the brain that activate movement (cerebellum, frontal lobes, basal ganglia, motor cortex, etc.) are also well connected to the pleasure centres of the brain. As motion activates emotion, catering for the bodily-kinesthetic Intelligence type in class engages positive feelings in learners and facilitates better retrieval.

Brain Gym (cf. "A Multiple Intelligences Road to ELT") not only energises by providing co-ordinated physical movement leading to increased blood flow but will also provide a means of increasing neutrophins which help to connect the hemispheres, improve hand-eye co-ordination and develop motor control. Research indicates that the optimal time on task is chronological age plus one or two. So for ten year-olds the optimal time would be eleven or twelve minutes and for a class of young adults it would be approximately twenty minutes. Introducing some form of physical activity at this point in the lesson will help to renew the oxygen supply to the brain and re-focus the attention of the learners.

The use of educational kinesiology or brain gym is just one of many options available to us to cater for those students who learn through movement. The five ways of starting a lesson or providing a break halfway through that are presented below can be equally as effective:

1. "Everybody stand up please. I'd like you to organise yourselves according to what time you went to bed last night - the earliest time on my left, the latest time on my right ... Now sit down and form a pair with the person next to you to work on the following activity:"

2. "Everybody stand up please. I'd like you to organise yourselves according to how many keys you’ve got in your pockets - the smallest number on my left and the largest number on my right ... Now sit down and form a pair with the person next to you to work on the following activity:"

3. "Everybody stand up please. I'd like you to organise yourselves according to the time you got up this mornings – the early birds on my left and the sleepyheads on my right ... Now sit down and form a pair with the person next to you to work on the following activity:"

4. "Everybody stand up please. I'd like you to organise yourselves according to how many coins you’ve got in your pockets – the smallest number on my left and the largest number on my right ... Now sit down and form a pair with the person next to you."

5. "Everybody stand up please. I’d like you to organise yourselves according to the number of letters in your first name (or family name) – the lowest number of letters on my left and the highest number on my right ... Now sit down and form a pair with the person next to you to work on the following activity."

6. "Everybody stand up please. Walk in any direction eleven steps, then pair up with the person nearest to you. Now sit down and work together on the following activity:"

7. "Everybody stand up please. Find a partner and face each other. Take it in turns to write your first name with your left elbow and your surname with your right elbow. Try to "read" each other’s names!" (a first day activity)

8. "Everybody stand up please. Walk as many steps in the room as the date of your birthday, then pair up with the person nearest to you. Now sit down and work together on the following activity."

An effective way of providing practice in the use of the Present Perfect to describe recent changes and for giving the learners an opportunity to stretch their legs works like this: Ask the students to find partners and to stand facing each other. Give them sixty seconds to observe each other closely, then ask them to stand back to back and to make five changes to their physical appearance. They should then stand face to face again and describe the changes that have taken place – you’ve removed your tie or you’ve put on a jacket, for example. You could start the process off by using yourself as an example. Leave the room for sixty seconds, then return and ask the class to describe the changes you’ve made.

The Get Off The Fence game utilises physical movement and is an alternative format for a traditional debate. Establish a line down the centre of the playing area and ask all the participants to stand on it. In other words, they are sitting on the fence. As motions are called out, they should position themselves on one side or the other depending on whether they are for or against the idea. The further away from the centre they stand, the stronger they feel about the subject. The two sides should then appeal to each other to move to the other side of the fence by making use of their persuasive skills. To make the activity more student-centred, the topics for debate should come from the participants themselves so that the issues discussed are then perceived as relevant to them and they have an authentic reason for taking part. Hopefully the students will feel so strongly about a topic that they will feel a need to speak and will be prepared to take linguistic risks in their efforts to express themselves. The activity has the advantage of not necessarily being classroom-bound as it could take place anywhere and requires hardly any preparation.

The Jump Rope Game is an effective way of putting the Total Physical Response approach into practice with younger learners. The only material required is a rope, which is laid down the centre of the room. To start off with, the students all stand on the same side. As the teacher calls out the items, the learners are required to move to one side or the other depending on the category of the word. If the noun is countable, for example, they jump to the left, and if it is uncountable then they jump to the right. Any players who jump to the wrong side are out of the game. To make the activity more student-centred, one of the learners can then take on the role of the caller. The game could also be used for discriminating between different sounds - past endings pronounced /d/ or /t/, for example.

As a variation, chairs can be used in place of the rope - a version of the party game Musical Chairs. If there are sixteen students, then use fifteen chairs, which they walk around in circles. When they hear a word that does not fit into the lexical set being presented, they should sit down on the nearest available chair. Whoever is left standing is out, and the number of chairs is then reduced again by one. The process continues until only one chair is left and the winner is found.