Language educators increasingly conduct research on some aspect of their own practice to illuminate and improve both learning and teaching, says Turner, and though they may share their findings with colleagues and other professionals, their goal is to understand their specific situation and practice rather than discover some general principle. She explains non-parametric statistics methods, which she says are perfectly suited to such small-scale language education research. After setting out foundations, she covers analyzing differences between two sets of data, analyzing differences between more than two sets of data, and analyzing patterns within a variable and between two variables. Annotation ©2014 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
Assuming no familiarity with statistical methods, this text for language education research methods and statistics courses provides detailed guidance and instruction on principles of designing, conducting, interpreting, reading, and evaluating statistical research done in classroom settings or with a small number of participants. While three different types of statistics are addressed (descriptive, parametric, non-parametric) the emphasis is on non-parametric statistics because they are appropriate when the number of participants is small and the conditions for use of parametric statistics are not satisfied. The emphasis on non-parametric statistics is unique and complements the growing interest among second and foreign language educators in doing statistical research in classrooms. Designed to help students and other language education researchers to identify and use analyses that are appropriate for their studies, taking into account the number of participants and the shape of the data distribution, the text includes sample studies to illustrate the important points in each chapter and exercises to promote understanding of the concepts and the development of practical research skills. Mathematical operations are explained in detail, and step-by-step illustrations in the use of R (a very powerful, online, freeware program) to perform all calculations are provided.
A Companion Website extends and enhances the text with PowerPoint presentations illustrating how to carry out calculations and use R; practice exercises with answer keys; data sets in Excel MS-DOS format; and quiz, midterm, and final problems with answer keys.
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