An Investigation of the Relationship Between University Prep Class Students’ Intelligence Types and Their Success of Foreign Language Learning

Abstract

In the 21st century, when foreign language learning has become almost compulsory, everyone is trying to fulfill this
obligation. In fact, foreign language has become a very important thing not only for the people who work on
linguistic sciences but also for politicians, academicians, and even sportsmen. In this context, the main purpose is to
compare the English achievement levels of students with physical/kinesthetic intelligence to those with other
intelligence areas. 198 males, 66 females, in total 267 students, who study at Karabuk University, School of Foreign
Languages during the summer term of 2017-2018, have participated in this study. “Personal Information Form”
developed by researchers; “Multiple Intelligence Observation Form” from the book “Multiple Intelligence
Applications” (2003) by Selçuk, Kayılı, Okut; Karabük University Preparatory Summer School foreign language
success averages for determining the English achievement levels of the students, have been used as data collection
tools. Kolmogorov Smirnov, Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis, and Spearman Correlation tests have been used to
analyze the data. Consequently, there are no significant differences between the foreign language scores of the
students according to the variables of doing sports with a license, gender, age, and licensed sports branches. However,
there is a significant difference between the foreign language scores of the students according to the variable of
exercising regularly (p=0.04<0.05). There is no statistically significant relationship between students' multiple
intelligences and foreign language scores.