Variables and Hypotheses

1. Variables and Hypotheses I hypothesize that you will do great theses.

2. Learning suite is dead… • to me

3. 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.

4. 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?

5. 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 

6. 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 Dependent = 1st language reading skill. Independent = language instruction.

7. 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.

8. 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?”

9. 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?

10. 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

11. 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 notquestions, 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

12. 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.

13. 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.