The Role of Intelligence in Learning English as a Foreign Language
محورهای موضوعی : Research in English Language PedagogyMousa Ghonchepour 1 , Mahdiye Pakzad Moghaddam 2
1 - Farhangiyan University, Tehran, Iran
2 - Education Department, Kerman, Iran
کلید واژه: intelligence, comprehension, foreign language learning, Achievement, grammar,
چکیده مقاله :
This study aimed to investigate the relationship between intelligence and learning English ingeneral, and learning grammar and reading comprehension in particular. Participants wereteenage Iranian learners from Kerman high schools in second grade. The tests wereadministered at the end of the year to two mixed classes of 60 learners whose ages ranged from15 to 19. Standardized tests were employed to assess learners' performance in readingcomprehension, grammar and intelligence (both verbal and nonverbal). The correlation betweenthe two variables was determined through Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient.Results of the investigation showed that unlike first language acquisition, there was a positivecorrelation between verbal and nonverbal intelligence and learners' English languagedevelopment. Data analysis showed that the relationship between intelligence scores and thoseof comprehension and grammar scores was significant across all the groups. The results of thisresearch prove that intelligence is one of the important factors in acquisition of English as aforeign language, but it is not the only factor.
August, D., & Hakuta, K. (1997). Improving schooling for language minority children: A research agenda. Washington D.C.: National Academy Press.
Brown, H. D. (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching (4thed.). New York: Longman.
Burstall, C. (1978). Factors affecting foreign language learning: A consideration of recent research findings. In V. Kinsella, (Ed.). Language teaching and linguistics: Survey (pp.5-125). U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
Candlin, C., & Mercer, N. (2001). English language teaching in its social context: A reader. London: Routledge.
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge: MA: MIT Press.
Chomsky, N. (2004). Knowledge of language as a focus of inquiry. In B. Lust & C. Foley (Eds). First language acquisition: The essential readings (pp. 15- 24). Malden: MA: Blackwell Publication.
Dörnyei, Z. (2005). The psychology of the language learner: Individual difference in second language acquisition. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Ellis, R. (2008). The study of second language acquisition (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gardner, R. C. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning: The role of attitude and motivation. Suffolk, U.K.: Chaucer Press.
Genesee, F. (1976). The role of intelligence in second language learning. Language Learning, 26(2), 267-280.
Jackendoff, R. (1994). Patterns in the mind: language and human nature. New York: Basic Books.
Kamphaus, R. W. (2005). Clinical assessment of child and adolescent intelligence (2nd ed.). New York: Springer.
Khansarian-Dehkordi, F. & Ameri-Golestan, A. (2017). Effects of social networking on Iranian EFL learners’ vocabulary acquisition. Research in English Language Pedagogy (RELP), 5(2), 97-111.
Klein, W. (1986). Second language acquisition. Language Learning, 26(2), 267-280.
Lawley D.N. (1943). The application of the maximum likelihood method to factor analysis. British Journal of Psychology, 33 (3), 172-175.
Lenneberg, E., H. (2002). The study of language and language acquisition. Retrieved from: http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~ycharles/klnl.pdf
Littlewood, W. T. (1984). Foreign and second language learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McGilvray, J. (2005). The Cambridge Companion to Chomsky. Retrieved from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521780136
National foundation for educational research. (1970). Non-verbal test BD. U.K.: NFER - Nelson
Pinker, S. (1995). A case study in language acquisition. In L. Gleitman & M. Liberman (Eds.) An invitation to cognitive science: Language. Vol. 1. (pp. 135-183). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Rajamanickam, M. (2004). Experimental psychology with advanced experiments (Vol. 1). New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company.
Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. (2001). Approaches and methods in language teaching (2nd ed). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Young, D. (1984). Oral verbal intelligence test. U.K.: Hodder & Stoughton.
