Dr. Zohre Gooniband Shooshtari & Afshin Khademi
Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Iran
Inspired by the revolutionary concept of Multiple Intelligences (MI) proposed by Gardner (2011), the present study aimed at investigating the relationship of musical intelligence as a subcomponent of the MI framework and L2 proficiency to Iranian EFL learners’ perception of English segmentals. An attempt was also made to determine the strongest predictor of the perception of English vowels and consonants. The participants of this study were 80 male Iranian EFL learners aged 14 to 19 (M= 16.5) selected from Iran Language Institute (ILI) of Dezful branch. Data were collected via a placement test, an MI questionnaire and a perception of spoken English test. The analysis of the data through standard multiple regression revealed that although both musical intelligence and L2 proficiency are related to the perception of segmentals, only L2 proficiency is a strong predictor of success in perceiving vowels, whereas the perception of English consonants appears to be determined by the learner’s knowledge of Persian consonants. Findings highlight the importance of not only L2 proficiency but also L1 phonological system in the perception of L2 segmentals.
The above abstract is a part of the article which was accepted at The Third International Conference on Current Issues of Languages, Dialects and Linguistics (WWW.TLLL.IR), 31 January-1February 2019 , Ahwaz.
