Unit 13 Empirical Studies of English
[Check your understanding]
State whether each of the following statements is True or False.
1. Conceptual research does not make use of induction. F
2. A qualitative study does not involve numeric data analysis. T
3. Interview studies must involve at least 30 subjects. F
4. An experimental research must have both a pre-test and a post-test. F
Note: Some experiments do not use pretests but can depend on existing literature or tests.
5. A corpus is the materials you collect. F
Note: It must be representative or big enough.
1. ASK:
(1) What is the independent variable, dependent variable, and moderator variable respectively?
IV: the gender of the teachers; DV: popularity with the students; MV: The gender of the students.
(2) How about a study with the hypothesis that using L1 in the process of learning English has a negative effect on students’ learning outcomes but it has a stronger negative effect on adult than young learners?
IV: L1 use; DV: students’ learning outcomes; MV: age of learners.
2. ASK:
(1) Why are the two questions too general to be answered?
L2 learners are not specific enough. English words may vary a lot in the use of stress. Different aspects may prove different in their difficulty of learning.
(2) What specific questions can you think of in order to answer each of them?
For a:
a. How do English majors use stress for English words?
b. Does English proficiency have an effect on English majors’ use of stress for English words?
c. Is there any difference between male students and female students in the use of stress for English words?
For b:
a. How do L2 learners at different stages study English grammar?
b. What grammatical items are easier or more different to L2 learners?
c. Do learners of different proficiency levels study English grammar in the same way?
d. What is the L2 learners’ attitude towards the study of English grammar?
3. ASK:
Omit.
4. ASK:
(1) What are the variables involved in the study?
IV: amount of reading in class
DV: scores in the vocabulary test
(2) What are some intervening variables that are not controlled?
The previous vocabulary size, motivation, the amount of reading outside of class, the construct of vocabulary test, the strategies used in memorizing words, etc.
5. ASK:
(1) What is a longitudinal study? How is it different from a cross-sectional study?
A longitudinal study is a correlational research study that involves repeated observations of the same items over long periods of time. Unlike cross-sectional studies, longitudinal studies track the same people, and therefore the differences observed in those people are less likely to be the result of other factors. Because longitudinal studies are observational, in the sense that they observe the state of the world without manipulating it, it has been argued that they may have less power to detect causal relationships than do experiments. But because of the repeated observation at the individual level, they have more power than cross-sectional observational studies, by virtue of being able to exclude time-invariant unobserved individual differences, and by virtue of observing the temporal order of events. [based on Wikipedia]
(2) Why is maturation worthy of our attention in the study of second language acquisition?
In L2 learning, maturation takes place as learners become older and more experienced.
(3) What factors may enhance the possibility of mortality? What can we do about it?
When the experiment is boring, time-consuming, too demanding, or when some subjects have to leave the experimental place, etc. We need to find ways to motivate the subjects. In addition, we need to use them efficiently.
6. ASK:
(1) What is the methodological significance of type-token description?
Both type counting and token counting are significant. For the former, we get information on the distribution of general categories; for the latter, we obtain information on the frequency of certain types. Frequency is an important notion in the study of language and its use.
(2) How many sentence patterns (refer to Chapter 4 if necessary) occur in the passage? Taking each pattern as a type, what is the number of tokens for each type?
Sentence patterns /types / Tokens / FrequencySV / (4), (11), (13), (18) / 4
SVO / (1), (3), (5), (7), (10), (12), (14), (16), (19), (20), (22), (24) / 12
SVOC / (17), (21) / 2
SVOA / (8) / 1
SVA / (9) / 1
SVOO / (6), (15) / 2
SVC / (2), (23) / 2
(2) Where can we also apply the type-token distinction to the study of English?
Omit.
■ Exercises
Task 1: Study Questions
1. Suppose a study raises such a hypothesis: Students who do six revisions of the same composition progress faster than those who simply write six different compositions without revisions. What is the independent variable and the dependent variable respectively? What moderator variable(s) can you introduce into the study? How about a study with the hypothesis: Students who use more varieties of learning strategies and use them more frequently learn English better than those who use fewer varieties of learning strategies and use them less frequently?
For the first study: Independent variable: Methods of teaching writing (multiple drafts v.s. single draft); Dependent variable: Improvement in L2 writing; Moderator variable: gender; proficiency level.
For the second study: Independent variable: Varieties and frequency of the strategy use; Dependent variable: English learning outcomes.
2. Read each of the following abstracts and point out the various aspects of the research.
Study One:
Independent variables: teacher comments; peer comments.
Dependent variables: amount of revision; attitude toward teacher/peer comments
RQs:
a. How do teacher comments and peer comments lead to learners’ revision respectively?
b. Are there differences in the learners’ attitude towards teacher comments and peer comments?
c. How do peer comments contribute to the learners’ writing process?
Study Two:
Independent Variable: error feedback
Dependent Variable: self-editing of the texts
Moderator Variables: feedback conditions; feedback types (explicit vs. implicit)
RQs:
a. How does teacher feedback affect the students’ self-editing in different feedback conditions?
b. Does the use of codes in marking errors differ from non-use of codes in the effect on students’ self-editing?
3. What types of information can we obtain when using a think-aloud? What are some details to which we need to pay adequate attention?
We can get information about the process the subject goes through in reading, writing, etc. and thus may get to know their beliefs, strategies, methods, etc. used.
The subject may either forget something he or she experiences or say something false. Thus,
a. The think-aloud needs to be done immediately after the experiment.
b. The subject needs to be a good reporter and thus needs training.
4. Interview seven of your classmates about their strategies for translating unknown words. Categorize and classify their responses.
Omit.
5. The Hawthorne effect occurs in an experiment when some subjects involved are so pleased to be chosen for the study that they behave better than usual. What can we do about it?
a. Wait till they calm down;
b. Ignore their performance in the first stage;
c. Keep the test secret.
6. What criteria should we adopt when establishing a corpus?
a. It should be big enough.
b. It should be representative.
c. it should be retrievable by the computer.
7-9. Omit.