A Study of Multiple Intelligences, Foreign Language Success and Some Selected Variables

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between students' gender and intelligence types, the relationship between particular intelligence types and students' success in grammar, listening and writing in English as a foreign language and the relationship between parental education and students' types of intelligences. Preparatory class students (n=144) attending Erciyes University's School of Foreign Languages participated in the study and the data was collected through the Multiple Intelligences Inventory for Adults. Descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test analysis, correlation analysis and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze the data. Analysis of the data revealed no significant gender differences in the intelligence types held by the participants except for that between gender and linguistic intelligence which was positive. Negative but significant relationships were found between success in students' test scores in grammar and bodily-kinesthetic, spatial, and intrapersonal intelligences whereas the relationship between musical intelligence and writing was found to be significant and positive. Finally, no significant relationship was found between parental education and students' intelligence types. [Published in Journal of Theory and Practice in Education v5 n2 2009] (Contains 3 tables, and 2 footnotes.)