A Multiple Intelligences Based-Teaching of English at University Level

Sanan Shero Malo^1, and Hussein Ali Ahmed²

¹Department of English, Faculty of Humanities, University of Zakho, Duhok, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

²Department of English, College of Languages, Nawroz University, Duhok, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

Cite this paper:
Sanan Shero Malo and Hussein Ali Ahmed. A Multiple Intelligences Based-Teaching of English at University Level. American Journal of Educational Research. 2016; 4(13):948-953. doi: 10.12691/education-4-13-6

Abstract

Multiple Intelligences Theory has attracted the attention of educators around the world for its great role in the field of education and other fields since 1980s. So teachers of English have applied the philosophy of such a theory in their classes at different levels for the sake of enhancing their students’ learning and providing them with better learning environments. The importance of the present study lies in the fact that it is the first time to apply this theory in the context of Kurdistan universities/ Iraq. It is also important for both teachers teaching English as a foreign language and students learning English as a foreign language. Based on Multiple Intelligences Theory, the present study among other things aimed at teaching English grammar to undergraduate university students learning English a foreign language at the Department of English/ Faculty of Humanities/ University of Zakho/ Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The problem diagnosed by the researcher is that when teaching grammar to students, it is not related to other aspects of language especially writing., which made students face difficulties when writing essays due to the poor grammar they use, which in turn affects their messages they want to convey to their audience. To conduct the present study, the researcher has adopted an experimental research design for identifying the effect of Multiple Intelligences Theory on learners’ achievement. 34 students (4^th year, 13 males and 21 females) were chosen to participate in this experimental teaching program. Before starting the course, a pretest was administered to the students. Then, they were divided into two groups: control group which will be taught according to the curriculum prescribed by the Dept. and experimental group which will be taught according to Multiple Intelligences Theory. Each group consisted of 17 students. After 12 weeks of teaching both groups, a posttest was administered to the same groups After that, the scores obtained by both groups were analyzed using SPSS software. Two statistical analysis tools were used : independent t-test and paired samples t-test to test the null hypothesis against the data analyzed. Based on the results gained on posttest, the null hypothesis was rejected due to the significant difference in the mean scores at the level of 0.05.

Keywords:
Multiple Intelligences Theory field of education teachers of English learning environment

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