Multiple intelligences and their relationship to English language students' achievement

Abstract EN

Multiple Intelligences and their Relationship to English Language Students' AchievementByNaif Salem AlrefaeiThis study aimed at investigating the relationship between multiple Intelligences and English language achievement of third- year secondary school EFL students in Yanbu.

The study attempted to answer the following questions: (1) what are the multiple intelligences prevalent among EFL secondary school students.

(2) What are the multiple intelligences that characterize high achieving EFL secondary school students? A multiple intelligences questionnaire (MIQ) were used to gather the data from 120 student samples.

This study explored the types of multiple intelligences of these participants based on their achievement at high and low levels (as measured by English scores and the teachers' opinion) at Yanbu secondary schools.

The results of this study revealed that secondary school students preferred the use of multiple intelligences in the following order: Logical-Mathematical, Intrapersonal, Visual-Spatial, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Verbal-Linguistic, Naturalistic and finally Musical intelligence.

Furthermore, the results indicated that the most used multiple intelligences types by high achievers were Logical-Mathematical intelligence; Intrapersonal intelligence and Visual-Spatial intelligence.

This study concluded that the teaching learning context can better meet the needs of all students by discovering how they learn best and setting up lessons to meet the individual needs thus engaging their students in learning.

The researcher recommended that Ministry of Education should train EFL teachers with respect to multiple intelligences in order to help their students to learn the English language more efficiently.