The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between multiple intelligences (MI) and reading proficiency of Iranian EFL pre-university students and to look into the role that gender plays. To find out the relationships among the naturally occurring variables, the researcher employed a descriptive and ex post facto design. The participants were 128 randomly selected pre-university students. The researcher utilized three instruments, namely: 1) a demographic questionnaire; 2) the Persian version of Mckenzie’s MI Inventory; and 3) a standardized reading proficiency test retrieved from paper-based TOEFL® tests. Analyzing the data using t-test, it was found that there was a statistically significant difference in the mean of musical-rhythmic intelligence scores of the low achievers and the high achievers which was positive and stronger among the low achievers. Accordingly, it seems that the high achievers may have lower musical intelligence, which also indicates that better readers may be less intelligent ‘musically’. A statistically significant difference was also found between the mean bodily-kinesthetic intelligence scores of the two genders which was positive and stronger among the females. No significant difference was found between the male and female students in their reading proficiency scores.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether performance in MI could predict the performance in reading competency. The other objectives were to identify the components of MI which are correlated with the reading test scores, and to determine the relationship between the multiple intelligences and reading proficiency. A descriptive and ex post facto design was employed to ascertain relationships among the variables. The participants were 128 randomly chosen pre-university students (grade12, 18-19 years old) of both genders studying in Tehran in the academic year 2008-2009. Three instruments were utilized in this study: 1) a demographic questionnaire; 2) the Persian version of Mckenzie’s MI Inventory; and 3) a standardized reading proficiency test which was selected from retrieved paper-based TOEFL® tests. Results of the correlation analysis revealed no significant relationship between the two variables of MI and reading scores of the students. Furthermore, the results of the correlation analysis revealed that there was a low significant, negative relationship between musical-rhythmic intelligence and reading which suggests that when the reading score of a student increases, musical-rhythmic intelligence of the same student decreases and vice versa. Overall, three categories of MI (musical-rhythmic, verbal-linguistic, bodily-kinesthetic) were found to be predictive of reading proficiency.