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Variables and Hypotheses

I hypothesize that you will do great theses.

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Learning suite is dead…

to me

+What’s your question????

20 seconds, Ask a partner, what are 3 things characteristics of good research questions?

• Is it feasible?

• Is it clear?

• Is it significant/meaningful?

• Is it ethical?

• Do they involve relationships? (helpful but not necessary)

• Read these parts of articles. Decide if the research questions are really good, so-so, or bad based on these criteria.

+The importance of studying relationships Why is it important?

Contrast these two research questions

How many students take Spanish 1 at your high school and how many take Spanish 2?

What factors encourage and discourage students from continuing to study Spanish in high school?

What is different about these? Is one better than the other?

+Discuss…

What is a variable?

-A noun that stands for variation within a class/group.

What are some common variables in our field?

Grades, proficiency, strategies, anxiety, motivation

What is a constant?

What is the same about all of the participants?

Look at the study and ask each other, What are the variables, What are the constants?

Longish, so scan the headings

+ All the Variables, Independent.

Read these. Then with a partner see if you can identify the independent and dependent variables?

A researcher teaches one group of heritage learners a grammar principle deductively and another group of heritage learners the same grammar principle inductively. Then gives them a written grammar test over those points.

Researchers give students in one class 30 mins./day of Spanish instruction and 30 mins./day of instruction in language arts in their first language.

Another class receives 1 hr. a day of instruction in language arts in their first language and no Spanish instruction.

After a year they test both students in reading in their first language.

Independent = type of grammar instruction

Dependent = grammar learning

Independent = language instruction.

Dependent = 1st language reading skill.

+All variables are not created equal…

Quantitative v. Categorical variables?

Gender

IQ

Oral proficiency according to the ACTFL Guidelines

Height

Types of animals

Type of institution

Motivation

High Achievement

Categorical

Quantitative

Tricky, more categorical, why?

Quantitative

Categorical

Categorical

Generally quantitative

Quant., depends on operation.

+All the Variables, Independent.

Let’s try one more:

Students go on study abroad for a semester and take Japanese 201.Other students stay home and take Japanese 201.Before and after the semester students’ pronunciation in Japanese is tested.

ID the independent and dependent variables.

Also, is study abroad a categorical or quantitative variable?

Is the independent variable “selected” or “manipulated?”

+What are the variables?

Up for a challenge?

Read this, quickly.

Decide what the independent and dependent variables are.

What are the constants, if any?

Is this a meaningful study?

+Extraneous variables…

You are a high school student.

Your teacher is trying to determine which of two methods improves pronunciation more quickly.

Over the course of two weeks one class watches several brief clips of Disney movies in Russian and is then asked to imitate the speech of one of the characters.

Over the same amount of time, the other class listens to several brief clips from a cassette tape of random words in Russian. After each word the students are asked to imitate the speaker.

Before and after the treatments students are graded in their pronunciation.

Which group progressed more?

The Disney group made much more progress than the cassette group.

Independent and dependent variables?

What caused the Disney group to improve more?

Extraneous variables

+Hypothesis What is a hypothesis?

Statement predicting the outcome of a study.

Here’s a study from earlier.

A researcher teaches one group of heritage learners a grammar principle deductively and another group the same grammar principle inductively. She, then gives them a written grammar test over those points.

Write down a research question that you think this study might be answering.

Hypotheses are not questions, right?

Try to write a hypothesis based on the research question.

Here’s a research question.

Does participating in study abroad relate to more improvement in L2 pronunciation?

Write down various hypotheses based on this research question

+You’ve got a hypothesis, which way do you go…

Identify each of these as directional or non-directional.

There will be a difference in the grammatical accuracy of students taught using deductive and inductive grammar teaching methods.

Inductive Grammar Teaching Leads to more accurate grammar use.

Deductive Grammar Teaching Leads to more accurate grammar use.

Directional are more powerful, harder to prove and a little riskier, but more powerful and convincing.

If you like danger you’ll like directional hypotheses.

+Hypotheses – Good, bad, unimportant?

Advantages

Force you to think more deeply about possible outcomes of research.

Easy to see if we are investigating a possible relationship.

Disadvantages

Lead to researcher bias.

Wait, researchers can be biased????????

What???

Can be inappropriate in some types of studies.

Focusing on hypotheses narrows attention, you might not notice other things.