How efl students’ oral performances are promoted with task - Based activities: An integration of multiple intelligences theory

Hue University Journal of Science: Social Sciences and Humanities
ISSN 2588–1213
Vol. 127, No. 6B, 2018, Tr. 101–119; DOI: 10.26459/hueuni-jssh.v127i6B.4841
* Corresponding: chaudondhpy@gmail.com 
Submitted:14–06–2016; Revised: 05–09–2018; Accepted: 15–10–2018 
HOW EFL STUDENTS’ ORAL PERFORMANCES ARE 
PROMOTED WITH TASK-BASED ACTIVITIES: 
AN INTEGRATION OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES THEORY 
Chau Van Don, Truong Vien* 
University of Foreign Languages, Hue University 
57 Nguyen Khoa Chiem St., Hue, Vietnam 
Abstract. This study aims to investigate the effect of using a task-based training program as an application 
of Multiple Intelligences Theory (MIT) on developing speaking skills for EFL students. The experimental 
and controlled groups each consisted of thirty first-year students majored in English Language Education 
at Phu Yen University, Vietnam. The tools of the study included a speaking-training program based on 
MI-oriented task-based activities to improve students’ speaking skills, a questionnaire, an interview, and 
twospeaking pre- and post- tests administered to the experimental and controlled groups. The experimen-
tal speaking-training program was taught to the students during a 15-week period. The participants’ feed-
back from the questionnaire, the interview, and their academic scores from the pre- and post-tests were 
collected and analyzed. The results revealed that the program had great effects on improving the students’ 
learning motivation and enhancing their speaking skills. The study also proposed some recommendations 
and suggestions for further research. 
Keywords.Task-based activities, oral performances, EFL students, Multiple Intelligences Theory 
1. Introduction 
 The major goal of implementing communicative activities in our daily life is to express 
our ideas as well as make ourselves understood. However, according to Sayed (2005), for most 
of the EFL students, oral performances are often regarded as one of the hardest to be trained 
and developed. Campbell (2003) pointed that in traditional language teaching and learning ap-
proaches for improving oral performances, much attention seems to be paid to verbal and rea-
soning abilities only, and such methods of training and assessment are perhaps not sufficient 
for the learners whose learning styles are not well-matched with those two verbal and reason-
ing skills. 
Gardner (1983) proposed that schools and institutes usually deploy the classic approach 
of assessing intelligence quotient (IQ) in their language training programs. With the philosophy 
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“Every learner is unique and intelligent”, the Theory of Multiple Intelligences has proved to be 
a humanitarian and favorable premise to foster and promote learners’ language skills. 
Armstrong (2017) remarked that while traditional language teaching and learning programs 
mainly focus on developing learners’ linguistic and reasoning skills, Multiple Intelligences 
Theory (MIT) proposes that there are many other ways in which learners’ language skills can be 
developed better. As the major aim of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is to enable 
students to promote their speaking skills to achieve progress in communicative competence, 
EFL instructors should create favorable conditions for each individual student to develop their 
speaking skills, in particular, and communicative competences, in general. 
Therefore, the main goal of this research is to verify the effectiveness of integrating task-
based activities as an application of MIT into the EFL speaking-training program. This research 
originates from a hypothesis that there issome significant improvement in the statistical results 
of the mean scores of the EFL speaking pre- and post-tests with better results for the experimen-
tal students regarding their oral performances. In other words, this research integrates task-
based classroom activities as an application of MIT to explore the benefits that the MI-based 
approach could offer to both EFL teachers and learners. 
2. Literature review 
2.1. Speaking skills 
Speaking is defined by Bailey and Savage (1994) as an “activity which requires a combi-
nation of various linguistic sub-systems, in which all of the linguistic factors are well mixed 
with each other to make this language skill a difficult task for EFL students. Speaking skills, 
according to Fauziah (2015), are also defined as the interaction process aiming at achieving 
communicative purposes. Such an interactive process relates to the concepts of delivering, re-
peating and treating the information. In this research, EFL speaking skills are defined as “the 
interaction and communication process in using EFL, consisting of the following four functional 
groups of speaking sub-skills: (a) asking and answering personal interview questions; (b) making a 
conversation based on a ready-given situation; (c) describing a picture; and (d) making questions and 
answers about a given topic.” 
2.2. Task-based activities 
 Leaver et al. (2004) defined task-based activities as the deployment of real-life communi-
cation language, which requires learners to perform meaningful interaction activities in which 
the target language is used. MI-based activities can be integrated into language instruction in 
various manners. Armstrong (2017) proposed that activity centers are an effective tool to pro-
mote language students’ MIs. Thus, students can be grouped into MI centers according to their 
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MI profiles established at the beginning of the training program; or again, halfway of the train-
ing program when the students have been fully aware of their true MI profile structures. In this 
research, task-based activities are deployed as an MI tool, with an argumentation that task-
based activities can involve and develop a diversity of students’ MIs simultaneously, not just 
promoting only one type of intelligence at a specific point of time. 
2.3. The Multiple Intelligences Theory 
The Multiple Intelligences Theory proposes that the definition of intelligence as tradi-
tionally measured and stipulated in intelligent quotients (IQ) tests cannot cover sufficiently all 
types of competences an individual possesses. The Multiple Intelligences Theory argues that 
instructors should design and conduct classroom activities on the basis of the individual stu-
dent’s creativeness and favored learning styles. The eight types of intelligences in MIT are listed 
as follows: 
1. Linguistic intelligence: the ability to use words to express ideas orally, make 
conversations, etc. 
Relevant speaking-training activities: delivering speeches, making conversations, role-
plays, discussions, interviews, etc. 
2. Logical intelligence: the ability to understand abstract concepts, critical thinking and 
argumentation skills, thinking and expressing ideas orally in deductive and conductive 
methods, etc. 
Relevant speaking-training activities: making or filling in charts, giving directions, jig-
saw activities, solving cross-work puzzles, etc. 
3. Visual-spatial intelligence: the ability to use visual aids or real objects to demonstrate oral 
expressions and express ideas orally. 
Relevant speaking-training activities: using pictures and images, making stories on the 
basis of pictures and real objects, etc. 
4. Musical-rhythmic intelligence: the ability to feel melodies and tunes, enabling a student to 
enjoy, imitate and invent the music. 
Relevant speaking-training activities: making chunks of “rap” songs integrated with 
vocabulary or contents of the topic, using the lyrics of the songs to illustrate for the 
ideas or contents of the oral topics, etc. 
5. Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence: the ability to use gestures, facial expressions or body 
language to represent the meaning and ideas to achieve communicative goals. 
Relevant speaking-training activities: story-telling or guessing the vocabulary on the 
basis of the cues expressed by gestures, facial expressions, or body movements, etc. 
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6. Interpersonal intelligence: the ability to work with other people in pairs, groups or teams 
to exchange and share information; it is also the ability to persuade other people to 
agree with a suggestion, or come to a final decision, etc. 
Relevant speaking-training activities: group-work and pair-work, jigsaw speaking activ-
ities, discussions, interviews, etc. 
7. Intrapersonal intelligence: the ability to work on one’s own and deploy individual 
reflections to make oral products for conversations, presentations, providing feedback, 
etc. 
Relevant speaking-training activities: doing personal project tasks, self-evaluation activ-
ities, creating individual oral presentations, etc. 
8. Naturalistic intelligence: the ability to use the images or real things from the natural 
surroundings to support or illustrate for the oral expressions and presentations. 
Relevant speaking-training activities: making posters for common social problems, 
doing project-based tasks on realities and measures for improving a certain issue, etc. 
2.4. Relationship between task-based activities and MI-based approach 
 The relationship between task-based activities and MI-based approach can be considered 
as that of a bi-directional one. Task-based activities, according to Leaver et al. (2004), enabled 
the speaking-training instructors to facilitate the students to practice their speaking skills by 
using the English language in meaningful contexts through a diversity of classroom activities 
originated from the students’ knowledge and experience. Whereas, Salem (2013) proposed that 
while students’ speaking-training process is integrated with diverse classroom activities in 
which their MIs such as interpersonal, bodily, logical and verbal intelligences are promoted, 
real communicative needs are established. 
 In addition, task-based activities, when applied in accordance with the principles of MIT, 
can promote students’ learning motivation and maximize their interaction for oral practice. One 
of the similarities between the Learner-Centeredness approach and the CLT approach, as indi-
cated by Fauziah (2015), students are the main focus of the teaching-learning process; the guide-
line running through these approaches is that through a diversity of classroom activities orga-
nized around the development of students’ learning abilities, teachers can reach every student’s 
learning styles and potential intelligences, thus, making teaching and learning activities more 
effective. Furthermore, Armstrong (2017) proposed that the advantages of implementing MI-
based activities arethat when students work in MI centers, they all share the common interest 
and interact with each other in a more motivating and effective atmosphere. (This is in contrast 
with group work activities in CLT, in which students of different types of learning styles are 
randomly grouped with each other, and often do not show the same motivation and common 
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interest in their communicative and interaction activities.) 
Therefore, it is obvious that the speaking-training lessons and programs should take into 
account the learners’ diversity and individual differences in every single speaking-training ac-
tivity which better their oral products for instructors’ assessment. Students’ speaking skills can 
be developed when their differential learning styles and favored types of intelligences are ac-
knowledged and when they are given numerous opportunities to speak about the topics of their 
own interests, and also when they are encouraged to participate in interactive activities with 
their peers with similar learning styles and intelligences in separate intelligence centers. 
2.5. Previous studies on the effectiveness of integrating task-based activities into develop-
ing EFL students’ speaking skills 
 Shore (2001) found out that speaking self-efficacy is positively correlated with interper-
sonal and visual-spatial intelligences. The findings indicate that 90% of the teachers in the study 
tended to stress mathematical, logical, linguistic, and interpersonal intelligences more than oth-
ers in the university classrooms. In addition, speaking self-efficacy was found to be positively 
correlated with interpersonal and visual-spatial intelligences. 
Campbell (2003) highlighted studies on the effectiveness of teaching and learning 
through MIs. His research was specifically designed to measure the quality of students’ oral 
products as a result of applying MIT. Hisresearch studies show positive results due to the ap-
plication of MI-based activities. 
 Arnold (2004, p. 124) argued that “MIT integration proposes that language learning, in-
cluding promoting student’s linguistic intelligence in EFL learning, can become more effective 
with the use of a diversity of language activities to cater for various intelligences”. Hence, lan-
guage instructors should offer a variety of assignments to create favorable opportunities to deal 
with language problems in their most favorable manners and to develop their different MIs 
simultaneously. 
Salem (2013) found that students who were taught using MI-based program scored high-
er on their final oral products. His research revealed that applying the MIT approach in EFL 
teaching and learning programs proves to be beneficial and effective in promoting students’ 
oral performances as a different individual student has their own favored ways to expose to 
their language acquisition and dealing with their own tasks. 
3. Research methodology 
3.1. Research questions 
With an aim to investigate the effects of integrating MI-oriented task-based activities for 
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promoting the students’ oral performances as well as to explore their responses to such an MI-
oriented integration, the following research questions were established for the research: 
What are the effects of integrating MI-oriented task-based activities into developing EFL 
students’ speaking skills?” 
What are the participants’ responses to the integration of MI-oriented task-based activi-
ties into the EFL speaking training program?” 
3.2. Research setting and participants 
The current study was conducted at a first-year class majored in English Education at a 
university in Vietnam. The total number of students participating in this research was 60, di-
vided into twogroups (the experimental group of 30 participants and the controlled group of 30 
participants). The first-year students were selected as participants in this study because of their 
new experience in learning speaking as a separate school subject at the university. This speak-
ing-learning experience was different from their high-school general English curriculum where 
much attention was paid to grammar and vocabulary knowledge. With such new research par-
ticipants, according to McDonough and Shaw (2012), it was a favorable condition for them to be 
adaptive to the new teaching and learning method. Although the participants weretrained to 
become prospective teachers, in general, they are not confident and fluent speakers of the Eng-
lish language. 
3.3. Research design 
This research was implemented with an instructional intervention andonly deployed for 
the experimental participants; the controlled participants were trained with the regular speak-
ing-training method for their speaking-skill development. This model of experimental design 
was adopted as the major objectives of the research. They were used to promote the speaking 
skills for thegroup of experimental participants by integrating MI-oriented task-based activities. 
3.4. Research instruments 
 As this research deploys both quantitative and qualitative methods, and they triangulate 
and mutually complement each other. Therefore, the instruments used in this research included 
a speaking-training program integrated with task-based activities following the principles of 
MI-based approach, a questionnaire for the participants in the experimental group; and some 
interviews conducted for six students in the experimental group who were ranked with lowest, 
average and highest marks in the post-test for in-depth analysis of their reflections. All the par-
ticipants took part in this research on their voluntary choices. The intervention was conducted 
in 15 weeks, with threecredit periods per week. The participants’ anticipated speaking skill out-
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comes were, to a large extent, similar to those of Level B1 – CERF, speaking proficiency. 
3.5. Research hypothesis 
This research adopted a quasi-experimental design to ascertain the authenticity of a hy-
pothesis, namely: “There are some significant improvements in the statistical results of the 
mean scores of the speaking pre- and post-tests with better results for the experimental students 
regarding their oral performances.” 
3.6. Procedures of the intervention 
3.6.1. Regular speaking-training method 
For the participants in the controlled group, their speaking skills were guided and 
trained basically through the classroom activities specifically designed and implemented for 
promoting their verbal and reasoning skills. In the pre-speaking stage, they were introduced to 
the speaking topic by provoking their imagination, knowledge, and experience about the topic, 
and they answered some general questions that gradually led them to the main contents of the 
topic. The participants were guided to make some guesses about the contents of the lesson. 
Then, in the while-speaking stage, they were asked to work in pairs and interact with each other 
on the basis of their verbal and reasoning skills to find answers or build up their oral presenta-
tions on the given topic. Next, they could go on with pair-work or group-work activities (by 
randomly pairing or grouping the ones sitting next to or close to each other) to have interaction 
and discussion activities. (Such groups of participants, in this case, were normally formed by 
asking the students to turn to each other in groups according to their close positions in the 
classroom). In the post-speaking activity, the participants could be asked to write a report about 
the results of their discussions in the while-speaking stage. 
 In general, with the above-mentioned regular speaking-training program, the partici-
pants really had opportunities to communicate and interact with each other in pairs and in 
groups in light of the CLT-based approach. However, such pairs and groups were established 
on a random basis, usually for the participants sitting closely with each other. Therefore, the 
members in each group might not share the same interest in the topic, and their learning styles 
within the same group or pair might also be quite different, and in some cases, they were even 
in conflict with each other. As a result, not all the participants in such a group could actively 
perform discussion activities. Another common problem often seen in these group work discus-
sion activities was that some students were usually more dominating and influential than oth-
ers, and some others even prove to be reluctant or unwilling to involve in such group work 
discussions. 
3.6.2. MI-oriented task-based speaking-training method 
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The MI inventory for EFL students’ speaking skills: In this research, aiming at improving 
the experimental participants’ EFL speaking skills, an adapted Multiple Intelligences Develop-
mental Assessment S