EFL Teachers’ Multiple Intelligences and Their Classroom Practice

This study sought to investigate whether there are differences among EFL instructors of various intelligence types in terms of the types of activities that they implement in their classes. It also sought to investigate teachers’ perceptions about the theory of multiple intelligences. To this end, 30 male and female EFL instructors teaching the same textbook with the same method of teaching participated in the present study. To gather the data, three successive sessions of each class were observed and the class activities were recorded through an observation schedule. Semistructured interviews were also carried out to explore the teachers’ perceptions of multiple intelligences. And finally, teachers’ dominant type of intelligence was determined by Multiple Intelligences Checklist. The results of one-way ANOVA and post hoc test revealed that only teachers of logical-mathematical type were influenced by their dominant intelligence type and other intelligence types did not exert a significant influence on the types of activities being implemented in the classes. The results of this study can be a fillip at least for teachers with logical-mathematical intelligence to be careful about their dominant intelligence type, not allowing it to affect their teaching and to compel them to use activities in line with their dominant intelligence.