The Relationship between Students‟ Strengths in Multiple Intelligences and Their Achievement in Learning English Language

Abstract

This article reports the findings of a study conducted in an urban secondary school in Perak, Malaysia. This study is about the relationship between students’ strengths in multiple intelligences and achievement in learning English. Multiple intelligences, proposed by Gardner (1983), look at the multiple cognitive capacities across human thinking. They include the verbal/linguistic, logical/mathematical, visual/spatial, bodily/kinesthetic, musical/rhythmic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic intelligences. Findings from this study suggest that in a learning environment where multiple intelligences may not be actively used, there is a tendency to have weak and negative correlation between multiple intelligences and English language achievement. Yet, there are distinct differences in the relationship between the two streams of Science and Art regarding the subjects they take. Practical implications for these findings recommend that teachers ought to exploit multiple intelligences in the teaching and learning processes to provide opportunities for the students to enhance their multiple intelligences.