Enhancing efl leanets readinng comprehension using multiple intelligences based activitics

Abstract

The Multiple Intelligences theory was developed by Howard Gardner in the early 1980s. It states that each person has several distinct intelligences correlating with specific parts of the brain. It explains how every person perceives the world through each of their intelligences. The present research was inspired by this theory; it is intituledThe Impact of the Multiple Intelligences Theory onReading Comprehension. The present study aims to investigate the effect of using the Multiple Intelligences-based activities on the Reading comprehension of EFL learners as well as to highlight the salient intelligences of the EFL learners in the sample chosen(twenty students). The researchhas started by identifying the learners’ multiple intelligencesprofilesusing Howard Gardner Multiple Intelligences-test (HGMI-test) to know the learners dominant intelligence (s). All students have been asked to answer the TOEFL reading diagnostic test that served as a pre-test to evaluate their reading comprehension level. In addition, Students have been integrated in a training programme (treatment) in which they have been taught reading comprehension through the Multiple Intelligences-based activities. At the completion of the training programme, students have been again asked to answer the TOEFL reading practice testwhich served as a post-test in order to measure students’ progress in reading comprehension. The analysis of the results showed that the salient types of intelligencewere: verbal/linguistic, spatial/visual,interpersonal and bodilykinesthetic. The findings also indicated that the MI-based activities have a positive relationship with reading comprehension, and that MI theory has an effect on intermediate EFL learners’ reading comprehension in a way that it increases their comprehension in reading. Finally further suggestions and pedagogical implications were presented.