Logical-mathematical intelligence and its relationship with English language proficiency

Abstract

This study explored the relationship between logical-mathematical intelligence and English language proficiency. To this end, out of the eight sections comprising the Multiple Intelligences Developmental Assessment Scales designed by Shearer (1994), its Persian logical-mathematical scale (LMS) was administered to two hundred and five participants who took the Test of English as a Foreign Language held and called MSRT by the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology in Iran. When the data on the LMS were subjected to Principal Axis Factoring and the extracted factors were rotated via Varimax with Kaiser Normalization, sixteen out of seventeen indicators comprising the scale loaded on six latent variables (LVs) having the initial eigenvalues of one and higher, i.e., Math Skill, Problem Solving, Natural Curiosity, Number Memory, Math Application, and System Invention. When the LMS and its LVs were correlated with the listening, structure, and reading subtests of the MSRT, the scale and its Math Application LV correlated significantly but negatively with the reading subtest. The results are discussed and suggestions are made for future research.