Gonulal, Talip

The present study investigated second language acquisition (SLA) doctoral students' statistical training and knowledge of statistics. One hundred and twenty SLA doctoral students in North America took a comprehensive statistics survey, and 16 of them participated in follow-up interviews. The results showed that doctoral students were well trained in basic descriptive statistics, while their training in inferential statistics, particularly advanced statistics, was limited. When looking at their statistical knowledge, the results indicated that SLA doctoral students were good at understanding descriptive and inferential statistics, but they found it hard to interpret statistical analyses related to inferential statistics that are commonly encountered in SLA research. Several suggestions directed toward improving statistical literacy in SLA were provided.

Gonulal, Talip; Loewen, Shawn; Plonsky, Luke

Statistics play an important role in analyzing data in applied linguistics research. Given the increase over time in the field’s reliance on quantitative analysis (Brown, 2004; Gass, 2009), statistical literacy is critical for both producers and consumers of L2 research. Although there has been some investigation into statistical literacy among applied linguists, no research to date has examined how such literacy is obtained by masters and doctoral students in the field. The present study investigated the development of statistical literacy in a sample of such students taking semester-long discipline-specific quantitative research methods courses. Participants completed a pre-course and post-course survey. The results indicate that participants increased their knowledge of basic descriptive statistics and common inferential statistics to a great extent. Furthermore, participants reported that they felt more confident interpreting and using statistics. Based on these findings, recommendations for improving methodological practices and graduate training in our field are provided.