The Relationship between the Interpersonal Intelligence and Reading Comprehension Achievement of Iranian Bilingual and Multilingual

The present study aimed at investigating the relationship betweeninterpersonal intelligence of Iranian bilingual and multilingual EFL learnersand their reading comprehension achievement. To do so, 60 intermediateEFL students were selected from a group of 80 based on their OxfordPlacement Test (OPT) scores. They were non-randomly divided into twoexperimental groups. Data collection took place during the summer semester2017. Once the interpersonal intelligence questionnaire and the readingcomprehension test scores had successfully been collected, the results ofPearson product correlation coefficient analyses showed that there was asignificant relationship between Iranian bilingual and multilingual EFLlearners’ interpersonal intelligence and their reading comprehensionachievement: higher interpersonal intelligence was associated with higherlevels of reading comprehension achievement and higher statisticalsignificance among bilingual learners. Therefore, it was suggested thatMultiple Intelligence Theories could still serve as determining factors inplanning programs to teach reading in spite of the theoretical, conceptual,and empirical criticisms of the idea.

Keywords:

bilingual , interpersonal intelligence , multilingual , reading comprehension