The Role of Intelligence in Learning English as a Foreign Language

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between intelligence and learning English in general, and learning grammar and reading comprehension in particular. Participants were teenage Iranian learners from Kerman high schools in second grade. The tests were administered at the end of the year to two mixed classes of 60 learners whose ages ranged from 15 to 19. Standardized tests were employed to assess learner's performance in reading comprehension, grammar and intelligence (both verbal and nonverbal). The correlation between the two variables was determined through Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient. Results of the investigation showed that unlike first language acquisition, there was a positive correlation between verbal and nonverbal intelligence and learner's English language development. Data analysis showed that the relationship between intelligence scores and those of comprehension and grammar scores was significant across all the groups. The results of this research prove that intelligence is one of the important factors in acquisition of English as a foreign language, but it is not the only factor.