The Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences of EFL College Students in Kuwait

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate the learning styles and multiple intelligences of English as foreign language (EFL) college-level students. “Convenience sampling” (Patton, 2015) was used to collect data from a population of 250 students enrolled in seven different academic departments at the College of Basic Education in Kuwait. The data elicitation instrument was derived from two standardized surveys: one on learning styles (Oxford, 1998) and one on multiple intelligences (Christison, 1998). Data collection utilized the Google Forms interface to facilitate participants’ access and responses to survey items through their mobile phones. Data analysis identified the participants’ general learning styles and multiple intelligences. The Microsoft Excel software program was used by the researchers to generate means, percentages, ranks, and standard deviations. Results indicated that while the participants’ dominant learning styles were global, extroverted, hands-on, and visual, their dominant multiple intelligences were interpersonal, visual, and kinesthetic. Implications for pedagogy included recommendations to accommodate students’ visual learning styles and multiple intelligences through the use of visual stimuli like PowerPoint presentations, charts, and graphs. In order to accommodate students’ extraverted and hands on learning styles as well as their interpersonal and kinesthetic intelligences, the researchers recommended the use of group activities such as role plays, simulations, and debates. Implications for future research included conducting learning styles and multiple intelligences studies in other colleges in Kuwait.