Quantitative Research Methods for Linguists: A questions and answers approach for students

Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
Contents......Page 6
Preface......Page 10
How to use this book if you are an instructor......Page 11
Acknowledgements......Page 12
Part I: Basic Statistical Ideas......Page 14
1. Basic concepts of quantification and number......Page 16
1.1 Why quantify?......Page 17
1.2 What is a number?......Page 19
1.3 Classifying numbers......Page 24
1.4 Converting nominal measures into continuous numbers......Page 30
1.6 How you express probability with numbers......Page 31
1.7 Summary......Page 33
1.8 References......Page 34
2.1 Introduction: the dinner party experience......Page 35
2.2 Designing a quantitative research project......Page 38
2.3 Data collection example: working with questionnaires......Page 44
2.4 Data collection example: the experimental approach......Page 49
2.5 Data collection example: working with corpus data......Page 51
2.6 Describing your data......Page 53
2.7 Designing a study so that a statistical test is possible......Page 57
2.9 Summary......Page 60
2.10 References......Page 61
Part II: Asking and Answering Quantitative Questions......Page 64
3.2 Designing the study to collect numerical data......Page 68
3.3 Data collection......Page 69
3.4 Describing the data with numbers......Page 70
3.5 Describing the data with pictures......Page 72
3.7 References......Page 78
4.1 The research story......Page 80
4.2 The role of visualisation......Page 81
4.3 Tables......Page 82
4.4 Charts and graphs......Page 84
4.5 When visualisations mislead......Page 87
4.6 Boxplot graphs......Page 88
4.7 Summary......Page 89
4.8 References......Page 90
5.1 The research story......Page 91
5.2 The data......Page 92
5.3 Descriptive statistics......Page 93
5.4 A follow-on research story? Identifying words that might merit further investigation......Page 99
5.5 Summary......Page 103
5.6 References......Page 104
6.1 The research story......Page 105
6.2 Designing your research to make the analysis easy......Page 108
6.3 The data......Page 109
6.4 Answering the question with chi square analysis......Page 113
6.5 Summary......Page 114
7.1 The research story......Page 116
7.2 Designing your research to make the analysis easy......Page 117
7.3 The data......Page 118
7.4 Answering the question using a Pearson’s correlation analysis......Page 123
8.1 The research story......Page 126
8.2 Designing your research to make the analysis easy......Page 127
8.3 The data......Page 128
8.4 Answering the question with a t-test......Page 134
8.5 Summary......Page 136
9.1 The research story......Page 138
9.3 The data......Page 139
9.4 Answering the question with an ANOVA......Page 143
9.5 Discussion......Page 145
10. Asking and answering quantitative questions: conclusions......Page 146
10.1 How to ruin your research project (and how to succeed with it)......Page 147
Glossary......Page 150
Index......Page 162