On Teaching to Diversity: Investigating the Effectiveness of MI-Inspired Instruction in an EFL Context

This study reports an experiment conducted to investigate the effectiveness of implementing MI-inspired instruction in an EFL context. To this end, a group of ten intermediate female students took part in a quasi-experimental study. At the beginning of the experiment, Multiple Intelligences Survey (Armstrong, 1993) was administered to determine the participants MI profiles. The participants were pre-tested using Oxford Placement Test (OPT) (Allen, 2004) to determine their level of proficiency. During the control phase, the participants received so-called MI-poor instruction which mostly focused on verbal-linguistic type of intelligence among others. During the experimental phase, based on the initial MI survey and students exit slips, a variety of activities were implemented to invoke various types of intelligence. At the end of both control and experimental phases, OPT along with Headway Stop Check tests were administered. OPT was administered to determine the participants general progress and Stop Check tests were given to trace any possible specific progresses. The findings of the study revealed a significant performance on Stop Check tests which was indicative of the at least partial effectiveness of implementing MI-inspired instruction.