APPLYING GARDNER’S MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES THEORY IN EFL CONTEXT

Abstract

Intelligence is one’s capability that is known as “g factor”. For the very first time multiple intelligence theory was introduced by Howard Gardner. He identified nine different types of intelligence. According to him, every student has all these intelligences either strong or weak and every student can learn the same subject in same way. Pakistani educational system prefers linguistic ways of instruction but all learners have not equally strong linguistic intelligence. Students find difficulty in writing; therefore, in this research, MI theory is integrated for enhancing one discipline, writing instruction. The sixth grade students from a Pakistani school participated in this research with their writing course. The study has used a quasi-experimental research method with a pre-test and post-test design. 60 students of sixth grade at a school in Lahore were the participants of the study. The division among the participants was done randomly into an experimental and a control group. In experimental group the instructional activities were based on multiple intelligences while traditional method was used in control group the control. The findings suggest that the experimental group instructed through multiple intelligences activities showed more improvement from their pre-test to their post-test scores than the control group instructed through traditional method. Experimental group also outperformed the control group according to the post- test scores. In addition, the participants reflected on the multiple intelligences activities more positively than the traditional way of instruction.