The effectiveness of multiple intelligence activities on vocabulary learning in elementary classes

iiABSTRACTThis study sought to reveal the efficacy of the teaching activities based on theMultiple Intelligence Theory on the pupils? vocabulary learning and retention.In this study; thirty words, including `parts of the body?, `house?, and`members of the family?, were chosen to be taught to the control and theexperimental groups consisting of the fourth graders in two classes, 4-A and 4-B,which were kept intact. While doing so the foreign language syllabus was followedwithout making any changes.The study took place in the Manisa Saruhanbey Primary School. Asmentioned above two classes were selected for the research. There were thirtystudents in each class. The 4-A class was determined as the control group and the 4-B class as the experimental group. The quasi-experimental research design was usedto test the effectiveness of the MI activities on the retention of vocabulary items,since the research was carried out with the two fourth year classes that were keptintact.In order to answer the research question, the pretest-immediate post test-delayed post test design was used. Prior to the onset of the research, a pretest wasadministered to the subjects. The results of the pre-test revealed the fact that thesubjects were not familiar with the selected lexical items as they all scored 0 (zero).The pre-test was administered to the subjects in both groups before thebeginning of the research and the immediate post test was administered during thelast five minutes of the lesson each week to check their learning. The same test wasgiven again after a month as a delayed post test in order to find out the effectivenessof the MIT activities on the retention of the items in the long term memory.The findings revealed that there was a significant difference between the twogroups in achievement tests in favor of the experimental group. In other words theactivities related to the MIT have a positive influence on the pupils? vocabularylearning and retention in the experimental group.