Silvi Listia Dewi, Misnar Misnar, Burhanuddin Yasin, Faisal Mustafa, Omar Khalifa Burhan
Intelligence is a key factor underlying individual differences in learning. This study aimed to determine whether students with strong linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences learned better or more quickly than those with weak linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences. Forty-nine senior high school students were taught reading comprehension of argumentative texts for three meetings, before and after which a reading test was administered. In addition, a differential aptitude test was administered to measure studentsʼ mathematical and linguistic intelligences. A paired sample t-test and Pearsonʼs correlation formula were used to analyze the data, at a significance level of .05. The research results showed that students with low and high linguistic or logical-mathematical intelligences improved their ability to comprehend the texts after the treatment. No significant difference was observed between students with different levels of either linguistic or logical-mathematical intelligence. In addition, levels of logical-mathematical and linguistic intelligences did not significantly correlate to the improvement of reading comprehension. Therefore, students who had stronger linguistic intelligence did not learn better or more quickly than those with weaker linguistic intelligence, and the same pattern was found for logical-mathematical intelligence. This result suggests that teachers may teach reading to EFL students without needing to adjust teaching methods and materials to match their studentsʼ dominant intelligences. © 2025, Chulalongkorn University Language Institute. All rights reserved.
English Education Study Program, Universitas Almuslim, Bireuen, Indonesia; English Education Department, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia; Psychology Department, Universitas Brawijaya, Malang, Indonesia
