English Output Case Study

Motivate Stage Month 1 to Month

12 of Enrollment

Effect of Emotion Coaching & Teaching Guided

by through Multiple Intelligence Awareness

What is SMARTree English?

SMARTree English is a comprehensive five-year language learning program for young

learners. The program combines the engaging platform of tablet computers with proven

teaching principles. It has been designed and tested with children by a group of dedicated

and experienced English language teaching professionals.

The SMARTree English program strives to maximize learning opportunities by combining the

best teaching practices and technology. It uses an integrated approach to language learning

and includes strands of integrated speaking, integrated writing, and integrated reading.

On the following pages, you can view the

output of one 10-year-old student who has

been enrolled in our program for just over

one year. This written and spoken output is

from his second month (Motivate A) and

twelfth month (Motivate B) of studying in a

SMARTree English Learning Center.

During the student’s first month studying at

SMARTree, teachers reported that the

student was difficult to control in class.

He had a rebellious attitude, was not

interested in joining in classroom activities,

and was unable to focus for any length of

time.

Overview

Over the past 12 months, Jack’s language skill has shown improvement. While that

improvement is somewhat marginal when compared to his classmates, the significant

improvement shown by Jack has been in his attitude towards his classmates, his

teachers, and studying English. The drastic changes seen in Jack are a direct result of

the SMARTree Emotion Coaching program and the specific training that SMARTree

Center Coaches receive related to helping students such as Jack.

Student ProfileHere is the profile of Jack, our case study student, at the time that he began studying

English at a SMARTree English center.

Age 10

Grade Elementary 3rd Grade

English Learning

Experience

Student had been enrolled in private English academies

on and off for 3 years.

Detailed Description

At his entrance to the SMARTree program he could read

the words according to phonics rules but had difficulty

reading story books. The student would sometimes

refuse to continue to read. His entrance examiner

recorded the opinion that the real issue was not his poor

performance or skills but a lack of motivation.

Coach’s Comments

Jack’s MMTIC and MI test results helped me a lot to

understand him and figure out better learning approaches

for him. I thought his distraction and poor performance

were because he had no motivation to learn English.

Thanks to SMARTree, which provided systematic emotion

coaching and specific teaching tips suited for his learning

style, he became able to focus for longer periods of time

and began to enjoy learning. He loved the Reading

classes in Motivate level, especially the Magic Adventure

series. Nowadays, he actively joins in class activities and

his concentration spans longer and longer periods of

time. From the portfolio output, we can see the

improvement he has made not only in language

proficiency but also attitudes towards learning.

Learning Style

•Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) result of ESFP

•Multiple Intelligence: Logic/Mathematical area, Naturalist,

and Visual/Spatial area are well developed.

Verbal/Linguistic area is comparatively under-developed.

MBTI is a questionnaire designed to

indicate how people perceive the

world and make decisions.

Children who are classified as ESFP

are often described as spontaneous,

resourceful and outgoing.

They prefer to learn through hands-

on experience and tend to dislike

book learning and theoretical

discussions. Because of this,

students with ESFP personality types

sometimes struggle in traditional

classroom settings. However, they

excel in situations where they are

allowed to interact with others or

learn through direct experience.

Specific teaching and parenting tips

based on each students’ individual

Multiple Intelligence type are provided

by SMARTree Centers. Through case

studies such as Jack’s, these tips are

being further developed and refined.

SMARTree students start every class by answering questions related to their mood and temperament. These

questions help teachers prepare to coach the students towards success.

According to Dr. John Gottman1, children who have parents and teachers who use emotion coaching learn

about emotions in healthy ways. As a result, these children tend to do better in school, make stronger

friendships, and may even get sick less often.

Dr. Gottman prescribes five-steps for guiding children in how to respond to their feelings. All five of these steps

are covered with students at SMARTree Centers.

Emotion Coaching

1Gottman, John Ph.D. Raising an Emotional Intelligent Child, 1998.

STEP 1: Be Aware of Emotions

STEP 2: Connect with your Child

STEP 3: Listen to your Child

STEP 4: Name Emotions

STEP 5: Find Solutions

According to Dr. Howard Gardner’s book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, we have several

different ways of learning and processing information. He called these relatively independent information

processing capacities multiple intelligences. He identified eight intelligences: linguistic, logical, musical,

visual/spatial, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic. Multiple Intelligence theory has helped us

to understand our students and to develop our teaching guide. At SMARTree centers, students take an MI Test when

entering and re-tests are taken on regular basis. Guides to develop other intelligences and suitable learning tips are

provided. A coach can check student’s MI result from the coach tablet as shown below for our case study student,

Jack.

Multiple Intelligence

Jack has strength in logic/mathematics,

naturalist, and visual/spatial intelligences.

Conversely his verbal/linguistic area is

comparatively under-developed. This type of

student enjoys playing games or solving

puzzles that need logic. Jack often looks for

patterns, logical sequences, or order in

things. He is sensitive to color and likes to

draw.

It would be easier for him to remember

words paired with images or stories with

colorful pictures. Teachers at SMARTree are

trained to care not to judge his distraction so

quickly. He may be organizing his thought

about the story he just read while drawing.

He will yield higher level output in a relaxed,

student –centered setting.

Motivate A Speaking

Portfolio:

This output is from the student’s second month studying

English through SMARTree. From the audio, it can be seen that the

student is not interested in the studying process as he is late to begin

to recording, and thus cannot finish most of the lines within the time

allotment.

Click to

listen.

Click to

listen.

Motivate A 2 Reading

Portfolio:

This output is from the same month as the previous Portfolio. It

provides further evidence of the student’s disinterest in the tasks at

hand. Jack plays with his microphone and yawns during the

recording before his teacher comes over to encourage and support

him.

Click to

listen.

Click to

listen.

Student Progress

For a period of ten months, Jack’s teachers all monitored his

progress carefully, and worked together to encourage all of

Jack’s effort and to give him positive feedback and gentle

suggestions for improvement.

Monitoring his daily Emotion Coaching check-ins, and

remaining vigilantly aware of Jack’s Multiple Intelligences, his

teachers provided Jack the best possible environment to feel

safe and supported while learning a foreign language.

The following two Portfolio pages represent Jack’s output

after a year of studying at a SMARTree English center. While

the audio output shows improvement in Jack’s overall

English ability, Jack’s attitude and motivation levels are the

most significant changes according to his teachers.

Motivate B Speaking

Portfolio:

This output is from the student’s tenth month studying

English through the SMARTree English system. While there are still a

few missed words in the recording, a clear difference in the student’s

attention level can be discerned. The encouragement and positivity

from his teacher is key to his success.

Jack

Click to

listen.

Click to

listen.

Motivate B 6 Writing

Portfolio:

This output is from the same month as the previous Portfolio page. In

this audio, the student’s attitude and positive feelings towards his

lesson can be felt through the playful way that he reads the story. At

the beginning of his studies, this student would often refuse to read

aloud in front of other students.

Jack

Click to

listen.

Click to

listen.

The evidence of Jack’s English skill improvement is clear, but all his teachers and his

parents say that the biggest change has been in Jack’s attitude towards learning English.

After twelve months of enrollment at SMARTree English, he has become equipped with a

more positive attitude toward learning and towards his classmates. Due to the

individualized coaching attention he received at SMARTree and the emotional awareness

built into the SMARTree program, the student has gained confidence in English, but more

importantly he has become a member of his class. He joins in with his friends and teachers

to complete activities together, and in general has a more positive and engaged attitude

towards his own education.

Jack’s SMARTree coaches and his parents are all very proud of his progress and

improvement. With continued careful attention to Jack’s emotions and some catering

towards his Multiple Intelligences, Jack is sure to achieve success in his future English

language acquisition efforts.

Conclusio

n

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in .

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