The effect of music on second language pronunciation: Based on multiple intelligences theory
This research is based on the premise that the human intelligence is not a single unitary entity which determines all our learning activities; instead, it draws on the findings by Gardner and the posited taxonomy of intelligence. The Musical intelligence has been documented to be positively related to the acquisition of pronunciation. This study investigated the interplay between the Musical intelligence and learning pronunciation, along with Linguistic verbal and Visual spatial intelligences. After sampling, the sample group took a pre test of pronunciation. This test asked the learners to identify and produce sound features of English. Afterwards, there was a treatment of fifteen sessions during which phonetic features were taught to the students. These sessions incorporated mainly issues which cause problems for Persian speaking English learners. At the end of the treatment they took the post test, a pronunciation test similar to the pre test. It was concluded that the Musical intelligence is positively and significantly correlated with learning pronunciation features in the classroom; however, the other two intelligences were not found to be in correlation with learning the pronunciation materials presented in the class.