Is English a measure of intelligence?

This has been an ongoing debate

between different groups of people. Many believe that English—or speaking
English well—is a measure of one’s intelligence. There are several blogs
around the web that discuss this matter, most of which, if not all are baseless
opinions. The most common mindset is this: people who speak terrible
English are labelled as stupid and people who speak English well are revered
as intellectuals. This notion is stupid, yes. At the same time, saying that English
proficiency is not a measure of intelligence is highly debatable. How so? That
depends on how we define intelligence.
Before we go into the details of this argument, let me give you some context
about myself, especially for those who do not know me outside my blog. I am
a graduate of Bachelor of Arts in English from one of the country’s state
universities, which was awarded as the region’s center of excellence for
education. Modesty aside, I graduated with the silver medal for academic
excellence. I am a linguistics and literature major and worked with TESL for
seven years before I became an editor and publicist for one of USA’s top
publishing company for two and a half years. I have also been a freelance
academic and creative writer for years, and have been delivering outstanding
results for my employer and clients both. Currently, I am a communications
trainer for one of the country’s best, if not the best, contact centers and BPO. I
have met so many intelligent people whose English proficiency needed
improvement, and I have helped them improve their communication skills and,
apparently, become more successful in their field.

Now, let’s go back to the topic at hand—is English proficiency a measure of

intelligence? First, let’s define intelligence. According to Merriam-
Webster, intelligence is “the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or
trying situations” or “the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s
environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria (as
tests).”[1] Simply put, it is our ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.
In psychology, human intelligence is defined as “the intellectual capacity of
humans, which is characterized by perception, consciousness, self-
awareness, and volition. Through their intelligence, humans possess the
cognitive abilities to learn, form concepts, understand, apply logic, and
reason, including the capacities to recognize patterns, comprehend ideas,
plan, solve problems, make decisions, retain information, and use language to
communicate.”[2]
And how do we measure intelligence? There are different ways to measure
such. One is through measuring one’s intelligence quotient or IQ, which are
one’s cognitive abilities relative to what others of different ages are able to do.
This concept was introduced in 1904 by Alfred Binet.[3] To calculate a person’s
IQ score, one’s mental age is divided by his or her chronological age, and the
quotient is multiplied by 100. Another form of measure is he g factor (also
called general intelligence, general mental ability, or general intelligence
factor), which is a construct developed in psychometric investigations of
cognitive abilities and human intelligence.[4] This is measured differently as
well, and let us not go into that for now. But is this all there is to intelligence
and where does English proficiency come into the picture?
According to Dr. Howard Gardner, intelligence is “a biopsychological potential
to process information that can be activated in a cultural setting to solve
problems or create products that are of value in a culture.”[5] He believes that
the traditional notion of intelligence, which is based on IQ testing, is far too
limited. Instead, he proposes eight different intelligences to account for a
broader range of human potential for both children and adults. (You can read
more about his Theory of Multiple Intelligences here.) One of the modalities of
the eight intelligences that he proposes is the verbal-linguistic intelligence, or
being word smart.
This modality of intelligence has high facility with words and languages.
People who have this intelligence are naturally adept at reading, writing,
telling stories, and memorizing words along with dates.[6] And this is where
English proficiency comes in. Verbal-linguistics intelligence is measured
through different verbal fluency tests or, simply put, one’s language
proficiency or one’s ability to learn a new language. Therefore, one’s
proficiency in English is, technically, a measure of an intelligence. It is
ignorant to claim that a person’s ability to learn a new language, memorize
rules of grammar and apply them consistently, learn new words and use them
easily, and pronounce foreign words correctly and easily is not a measure of
intelligence. This does not just apply to the English language, but any
language at all (at the same time, English proficiency has always been the
main point of discussion about this matter since several countries promote
English as the international language that bridges the gap between
languages). It is the same way that a person’s ability to socialize harmoniously
with co-workers is both a sign and a measure of intelligence.
What does it mean for us second-language speakers of English? Dr.
Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences is also used to profile people based
on what they are good at. It has been established that intelligence is
significantly correlated with successful training and performance outcomes,
and IQ/g is the single best predictor of successful job performance.[7] Certain
employers use this as a decisive factor to sift through a list of applicants for a
specific job. For example, my job as a communications trainer requires me
and my colleagues to be adept at languages, whether it is semantics, syntax,
morphology, phonetics, or other aspects of linguistics. It does not have to be a
very technical knowledge of the language, per se. At the same time, we are
expected to be masters of basic language rules, such as the difference
between once and one’s, which verb tense is the most appropriate in a given
context, or when to use the definite article in a sentence.
We Filipinos have been anchored in such an awkward mentality that we only
measure intelligence in a specific way—mostly through the numbers we see in
report cards, not what we are capable of doing in real life through different
media. Because we are second-language speakers of English, we tend to be
aggressively defensive that our ability or inability to speak the language is not
a measure of our intelligence, when it actually is in some ways. We need to be
more open-minded that intelligence comes in different forms and they are
measured differently.

To recap: Intelligence is our ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills,
and there are different ways to measure one’s intelligence. There are multiple
intelligences, and they are measured in different ways. One of these
intelligences is verbal-linguistics, which includes a person’s ability to learn a
new language and is measured by his or her proficiency in such language. It
is ignorant to say that one’s ability to learn, understand, and use a certain
language such as English is not a measure of intelligence.

References

English is a Language Not a Measure of

Intelligence
This is so true that English is a language and not to be used as a measure of
once intelligence. Not all people who can speak English is educated or
intelligent. Foreign countries where English is not their first language may
find it hard to speak English but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t intelligent.
Like for instance, most Japanese or Taiwanese cannot speak English fluently.
But that doesn’t mean that they are less educated than other foreign land that
can speak English easily. And not all men who can speak English are
brilliant. Yes they can speak but do they really know what they are trying to
say? Or if they can speak English does it mean that they already have the
right to discriminate others who can’t speak?
In our country, some doesn’t mind speaking English at all. But some who
may heard somebody speaking English may think that he’s rich, comes from
a well known family, or attending a university school. That’s the common
instinct once we have heard somebody who effortlessly speaks English even
in a small conversation with friends. Specially if the person speaks well and
pronounces each word fluently. However there are misconception for some
that we shouldn’t measure once capacity or intelligence by the language he
uses. He can be good in English but can he do other things than just speaking
that language? English can really be a difficult language to start with. But
with once perseverance and the willingness to learn even a grade school pupil
in public school can speak English but he doesn’t need to be a top student or
he doesn’t need to be rich. If he’s willing to learn he can easily learn it for
sure.

Once ability doesn’t need to be measured by the way he speak. There

are a lot of rich people who discriminate others and think that they are
way better than others. But the way they treat people shows more of
how they are more illiterate than those who cannot speak English. If
one knows how to treat their fellowmen right and respect one another
there’s no need which language they are using for as long as anyone
can understand the language of a righteous man.