The Relationship between Intelligence Ability Types and Learners Foreign Language Achievement

Abstract

The current study set out to find out the relationship between language learners’ multiple intelligence abilities and their foreign language achievement. With regard to the above mentioned aim, 112 EFL learners participated in the research. Further, in this study, the researcher made use of the following measuring instruments: 1) the Persian version of McKenzie’s Multiple Intelligence (MI) Inventory; and 2) participants’ final term scores as the measure of their language learning achievement. Analyzing the data employing some independent -samples t-tests, it was explored that there was a statistically significant difference [t (104) = 2.100, p (two-tailed) =.035] in the mean of verbal intelligence scores of the low and high achievers, which was larger among the high achieving group. Accordingly, it can be concluded that higher achieving EFL learners have a higher verbal intelligence, implying that more proficient EFL learners may be more intelligent ‘verbally’ than their less proficient counterparts. Moreover, verbal and visual intelligences―with the highest mean scores― were the two mostly used types of intelligences by both high and low achieving groups.