The relationship between perceptual learning styles, multiple intelligences and task performance of Iranian non-English academic EFL learners

Theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI), developed by Howard Gardner in 1983. He proposed that there are eight different ways to demonstrate intelligence: the logical/mathematical, linguistic/verbal, visual/spatial, bodily/kinesthetic, musical/rhythmic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalist intelligences. Learning styles were developed by Peter Honey and Alan Mumford (1992), based upon the work of Kolb, and they identified four distinct learning styles or preferences: Activist, Theorist; Pragmatist and Reflector. The purpose of the present research is to find the relationship between multiple intelligences, perceptual learning styles, and their effects on Iranian young adults' English language performance on different tasks. This research is supposed to be regarded as an interdisciplinary attempt linking two disciplines in cognitive science, namely, psychology and second language acquisition. To this end, a total of 60 non English academic EFL learners were initially administered four questionnaires, namely multiple intelligences and perceptual learning styles inventory and an oral task based on visual input and a written task. The results showed that the dominant intelligence preference was Visual/Spatial and major learning-style preference was Activist. The most dominant perceptual learning style for both male and female Iranian academic EFL learners, is Activist. In the field of multiple intelligences, the most dominant category among male Iranian academic EFL learners, is Interpersonal, and among female learners, is Visual/Spatial. Pearson correlation coefficients revealed that several statistically significant moderate relationships exist between perceptual learning styles preferences and multiple intelligence preferences. Also results showed there were some relationships among learners multiple intelligence preferences, Learning style preferences and their performance on different tasks.

کلیدواژه ها:

Learning style ، Multiple Intelligence Preferences ، Task Performance