The Effect of Linguistic Intelligence, and Vocabulary knowledge on Pupils’ Reading Comprehension The Case of Second-year Pupils at Abderahman Bensalem Secondary School Bouhadjar

Abstract

The present study is primarily conducted to explore the effect of linguistic intelligence and vocabulary knowledge on pupils’ reading comprehension. The investigation was carried out at Abderahman Bensalem Secondary School in Bouhadjar. In order to confirm or reject the formulated hypotheses, the researcher relied on the descriptive method. Thus, two main data gathering tools were used, the classroom observation, and the pupils’ questionnaire. Accordingly, the classroom observation covered three sessions during which the pupils were provided with a number of reading comprehension tasks based on vocabulary. The tasks are taken from the students’ textbook, and they include activities such as labelling pictures, matching, and multiple-choice questions, while the questionnaire about linguistic intelligence was administered to 21 secondary school pupils. The results obtained from the classroom observation showed that pupils with a wide range of vocabulary solved the tasks easily. Likewise, the findings obtained from the pupils’ questionnaire revealed that some pupils enjoyed a high level of verbal linguistic intelligence, and this was reflected in their answers. Hence, it can be concluded that vocabulary knowledge, and linguistic intelligence can affect pupils’ reading comprehension. On the basis of the findings, some recommendations were provided to pupils, teachers, and all stakeholders in order to take the best advantages from teaching pupils how to develop their vocabulary, and linguistic intelligence, and make the best of both for effective academic achievements seeking any possibility for implementing Multiple Intelligence theory in Algerian schools.