Verbal linguistic intelligence of the first-year students of Indonesian education program: A case in reading subject

Abstract

This study aimed to describe seven indicators of students’ verbal linguistic intelligence in reading subject. It used a qualitative research method. The subjects of this study were 30 students consisted of 9 male and 21 female students. They took the reading subject in the second semester of the first year. They were given a test of verbal-linguistic intelligence. Seven students were selected to be interviewed because they have verbal-linguistic intelligence and good communication. To find out the validity of the data, the researchers used triangulation of the test results and the results of interviews and triangulation of the second researcher and research assistants. Furthermore, the data were analyzed using the content analysis method which consisted of three steps, they were data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing/verification. The results of the study show that there were seven indicators of verbal-linguistic intelligence of students in reading subject, first, having excellent initial knowledge in mentioning words, second, enjoying wordplay with Scrabble, third, entertaining themselves and other students by playing tongue twisters, fourth, explaining the meaning of the words written and discussed, fifth, having difficulties in mathematics lesson, sixth, their conversation refers to something they have read and heard, and the last, having the ability to write poetry based on personal experience.