To improve your linguistic intelligence.

Answer 1

Linguistic IntelligenceFrom a very early age we have all been encouraged to develop the art of communication. Even if we do not consider ourselves to be particularly talented, we have at least learned sufficient so as to interact fairly successfully with others. There are however, individuals who have developed their linguistic skills to the point where it becomes an art. They have the ability to write and/or talk fluently, utilising a broad vocabulary to express the precise meaning of what they wish to convey and they can speak almost melodically with changing intonations and rhythms of sound to express feelings and promote memory.

The precise definition of Linguistic Intelligence has been defined by Howard Gardener as sensitivity to the meaning of words, the order among words, sounds, rhythms, inflections, different functions of language, phonology, syntax and pragmatic.

Individuals with Linguistic Intelligence will have one or more of the following skills:-

• Express Sensitivity - The ability to listen carefully to others language and language patterns and to communicate expressively (primarily orally) with appropriate sensitivity.
• Rhetorical Skills - The ability to use language as a tool for persuasion and effect through negotiation.
• Literature Skills - The ability to choose words well when writing in order to generate the right emotional tone for example when writing letters, poems, stories or when creating reports.
• A good verbal memory for what is read, spoken or written.

The advantages of developing ones Linguistic Intelligence further are many. We use language to explain, persuade, sell, argue, speak publicly, describe, write and so on. It is a skill used extensively by lawyers, politicians, businessmen - and London taxi drivers!

Develop Your Linguistic Intelligence by:

The advantages of developing ones Linguistic Intelligence further are many. We use language to explain, persuade, sell, argue, speak publicly, describe, write and so on.

Following is a list of activities that have been designed to help improve Linguistic Intelligence. Have a look through each item and perhaps try a few activities that you feel may help improve an area that you consider to be weak and that you would like to strengthen.

• Hold Trivial Pursuits parties
• Play word games (e.g. scrabble, anagrams, crosswords, up words)
• Join a book club
• Attend a workshop on writing through a local college
• Record yourself speaking into a tape recorder and listen to the playback
• Visit the library and bookshops regularly
• Join a speaker's club
• Subscribe to a high-quality newspaper
• Read a book a week
• Prepare an informal ten-minute talk for a business or community event
• Learn to use a word processor
• Listen and watch recordings of famous orators, e.g. Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler
• Keep a daily diary or write 250 words a day about anything on your mind
• Tape yourself talking out loud about how to solve logical or mathematical problems
• Pay attention to the different verbal styles (dialects, slang expressions, intonations and vocabularies) of different people you meet
• Find opportunities to tell stories to children (and adults!)
• Make up your own riddles, puns and jokes
• Attend a speed-reading seminar
• Teach an illiterate person to read through a voluntary organisation
• Memorise favourite poetry or prose passages
• Rent, borrow or buy audio recordings of great literature and listen to them as you commute to work, or during other 'dead time', e.g. Shakespeare, Dickens, Wordsworth, Austin, Bronte, Steinbeck, Orwell, Hemmingway, Lawrence, Chaucer
• Circle unfamiliar words you encounter during your reading and look them up
• Buy a thesaurus, a book of word origins and a style manual and use them regularly in your writing
• Use one new word in your conversation every day.