The Effect of Linguistic Intelligence-Based Activities on Iraqi EFL Learners' Speaking Ability: A case study of AL-Diwaniyah

Abstract

The present study investigates possible effect of linguistic intelligence-based activities on the speaking ability of Iraqi EFL learners. Forty-three male and female homogenous Iraqi speaking EFL learners participated in this study and divided into experimental and control groups. After gaining the consent of the authorities and the participants for participating in the study, the participants were informed of their responses' confidentiality. In fact, the researcher explained to the participants that they respect their rights and the obtained data would be fully confidential. The instruments used were Nelson placement test, multiple intelligence test, pretest, treatment and posttest. The analysis of the results revealed a significant effect of linguistic based activities on Iraqi EFL learners' speaking ability. Furthermore, the results indicated that after teaching activities related to linguistic intelligence in control and experimental groups, no significant difference between males and females was found for the case of speaking ability. The findings suggest all the EFL teachers to consider the role of MI in classes and provide more effective activities to help students improve English language speaking ability. Possible implications of findings for teaching speaking have been discussed.