B. The Relevant Study
There are some relevant studies about verbal – linguistic intelligence and
reading. The first study was conducted by Hashemi, his research is about investigating whether there is any relationship between multiple intelligence and
reading ability. The participants were 122 Iranian undergraduate EFL English as Foreign Language students were selected from Islamic Azad University,
Raudehen Branch. The research used IELTS and multiple intelligence questionnaire as the instruments of the research. The IELTS test was used as a
main instrument for the testing rea ding ability and the McKenzie’s questionnaire
used to identify students’ intelligences profiles. The result from correlational design revealed that verbal
– linguistic intelligence and kinesthetic intelligence made the greatest contribution toward predicting reading ability scores.
43
The second study was conducted by Narges Moheb and Mohammad S. Bagheri. Their research is about finding the relationship between multiple
intelligences and writing strategies among Iranian EFL learners. The participants in this study were 120 adult males and females studying at high and advanced
level of Iran Language Institute. The researchers used questionnaires to measure the variables. The first questionnaire was about multiple intelligences and the
second was about writing skill and strategies questionnaire for checking the students’ use of general, before, during, and after writing. According to the result,
verbal – linguistic intelligence was correlated with general writing strategies
44
. The third research was invastigated by Rahimi and Sadighi. This research was
examined about the impact of linguistic intelligence and emotional intelligence on the reading comprehension ability of the Iranian EFL learners. The participants
were 135 senior English major both male and female. But, only 90 students at an intermediate level of proficiency were analyzed for the study. The data gathered
through two questionnaires and a reading test and analyzed through two-way ANOVA and Multiple Regression. The result indicated that the linguistic
43
Hashemi, op.cit., p.100.
44
Narges Moheb and Mohammad S. Bagheri, Relationship between Multiple Intelligence and Writing Strategies, Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 4 4, 2013, p.777.
intelligence is a relatively strong predictor of reading performance, accounting for more than 40 of the variance observed in the students’ performance on the
reading comprehension test.
45
The last research was conducted by Eva Stranovska, et.al. This research was conducted to find the measure of influence of cognitive-individual variables Need
for structure, Ability to Achieve Cognitive Structure, Self-Esteem, Cognitive Style Category With
, linguistic variables Verbal Intelligence, Morphology Score, and demographic variables Study-year, Grade, Living abroad on syntactic abilities
of students studying English language and culture at the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra. The participants was 114 students 31 men, 83
women, students of first, second, and third year of English Language and Cultue studies full-time study. This research used PNS Scale
– Personal Need for Structure
by Thomson Naccarato and Parker 12 items, AACS Scale 24 items studied abot how students react in uncertain situation, Estimation Scale C-W
Category Width 20 statement items : C-W scale measures rthe Cognitive Style
‘Category Width’ and real estimation, RSES to measure the level of self-esteem scale, Intelligence Structure Test I-S-T, Verbal Intelligence Sub-tets consists of
three sub-tests, and Test of Syntactic Abilities 80 items divided into four areasmeasured the ability to create syntactic structures. The result of the study
shows that a positive correlation between syntactic ability and Verbal Intelligence and a negative correlation between Verbal Inteligence and Need for Structure
46
. There has been some studies invastigated that showed verbal-linguistic
intelligence related to language proficiency, especially in reading. However, not many studies have investigated verbal-linguistic intelligence correlates to a
specific language skill, reading. Moreover, since there has been investigations that showed verbal-linguistic intelligence correlates to language proficiency for EFL
45
M. Rahimi, F. Sadighi and Z. Heosseiny Fard, The Impact of Linguistic and Emotional Intelligence on the Reading Performance of Iranian EFL Learners, The Journal of Teaching
Language Skills JTLS , Vol.3 1, 2011, p.151.
46
Eva Stranovska, et al., Cognitive-Individual, Linguistic and Demographic Variables, and Syntactic Abilities in Foreign Language, Studia Psychologica, Vol. 55 4, 2013, p.273.
learners in others country, so this study will examined the correlation between verbal-linguistic intelligence and reading in Indonesia.
C. Conceptual Framework
Based on the theories above, it can be concluded that reading is one of the most important material to be learnt. In reading, the reader can get information
through the written text. Especially in language learning, reading is one of the most important skills that can help the language learner to improve their
knowledge about the foreign language. As mentioned in the theories about reading, reading is a mental process that involves the reader
and the reader’s brain is getting together with the text to get the meaning of the text. While the eyes
read the text, the brin try to get the meaning of it. So, reading also called as a cognitive process because when the reader reads, the reader’s not only reads the
words by words but also need reader’s comprehension in understanding the text.
Without comprehension, the reader just reads the words without getting the message of the text.
Because reading is also called as cognitive process, many people in education believe that intelligence is one of the factors whether the student potential level up
or not. In many schools, reading and intelligence test are becoming a standard for understanding students self-background. In addition, intelligence is often
considered to be a major factor causing high and low reading achievement. Based on Howard Gardner’s theory, there are 9 types of multiple intelligence.
One of them is verbal – linguistic intelligence which one of its characteristics
is loves to read. As theories above, verbal linguistic intelligence is an ability to understand written and oral language. This intelligence involves how a person can
understand and enjoy easily with language skills. As writer mentioned, reading is one of the ability that can easily mastered by the person who have dominant
verbal – linguistic intelligence in themselves. However, most people does not
realize what their dominant intelligence are. Since intelligence is something that can be changed andor improved, so people can changed or improve the
intelligence based on what they want.
Thus, based on the explanation above, it can be identified that verbal –
linguistic intelligence has a great deal with reading. it can be supposed that the more students getting aware about their verbal
– linguistic intelligence and having a better knowledge about what their dominant initelligence are, they will easily
get comprehension with the text and also they can help themselves in learning process based on their learning styles which developed by intelligences.
D. Theoretical Hypothesis
Based on the theories discussed above, it can be proposed theoretical hypothesis that there is significant correlation between students’ verbal –
linguistic intelligence and reading achievement.
Kategori