MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE AND ITS IMPACT ON THE CAMEROONIAN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM

Author: Nicoline Agbor Tabe

ABSTRACT

The Educational systems imposed by colonization in Cameroon and Africa at large have been cognitively based, relying on memorization or the learners’ capacity to use the brain to process, store and retrieve what the teacher gives them in class during evaluations and intelligence is measured based on that. This situation has made learners whose learning style do not corroborate with such category to go unnoticed, unrepresented, underexploited, excluded during the teaching/learning process and evaluated as slow learners. This is a problem and inaccurate to the Cameroonian language classroom in particular and educational system in general. This paper therefore explores the perception and use of Multiple Intelligence by language teachers in GBHS Ekounou (Yaounde) and GBHS Bayelle-Nkwen (Bamenda) and its role in achieving a more inclusive teaching and greater learning outcomes. A mix survey (quantitative and qualitative) design was adopted for this paper. Through Gardner’s (1983) theory of multiple intelligence and questionnaires administered to key actors in the language classroom, data were designed, collected and analysed. Finding revealed that language teachers have a low perception of the use of multiple intelligences and thus, rarely apply it during their teaching thereby excluding learners from the teaching/learning process. Further findings indicate teachers’ low learners’ achievement as differentiation is rarely practiced during the teaching learning process.

Keywords: Multiple intelligence, teachers’ perception, inclusive teaching, learning outcomes, language classroom.

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