DATA ANALYSIS

ANALYZING QUALITATIVE DATA

Watson-Gegeo (1988,1997) divided cyclical data analysis into
three distinct stages:
Comprehensive: In which all possible aspects of a chosen context are
researched.
Topic oriented: In which the topic is clarified through preliminary
analysis and focused data collection.
Hypothesis oriented: In which hypotheses are generated based on
data.
THE GROUNDED THEORY
• developing theory based on, or
• grounded in, data that have been systematically gathered and
analyzed.
CREDIBILITY
• because qualitative research can be based on the assumption of
multiple, constructed realities, it may be more important for
qualitative researchers to demonstrate that their findings are credible
to their research population.
TRANSFERRABILITY
• mportant for determining
• similarity of context is the method of reporting known as "thick
description,"
• which refers to the process of using multiple perspectives to explain
• the insights gleaned from a study, and taking into account the actors'
interpretations
• of their actions and the speakers' interpretations of their speech.
COMPONENTS
Davis (1995) distinguished three essential components of thick
description:
• Particular description: Representative examples from the data.
• General description: Information about the patterns in the data.
• Interpretive commentary: Explanation of the phenomena researched
and interpretation of the meaning of the findings with respect to
previous research.
DEPENDABILITY
Electronically recorded data can help to recreate the data collection
context and allow the researcher to make use of all interpretive cues in
order to draw inferences and evaluate the dependability of the
inferences that have been drawn. Recordings can also help research
participants and other researchers working in similar contexts to assess
whether dependable inferences have been derived from the data.
TRIANGULATION
theoretical triangulation (using multiple perspectives to analyze the
same set of data)

investigator triangulation (using multiple observers or interviewers),

and

methodological triangulation (using different measures or research

methods to investigate a particular phenomenon).
As Johnson (1992) noted, "[T]he value of
triangulation is that it reduces
observer or interviewer bias and enhances
the validity and reliability (accuracy)
of the information"
ANALYZING QUANTITATIVE DATA
DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
• Descriptive statistics can help to provide a simple summary or
overview of the data
Woods, Fletcher, and Hughes (1986) stated, "When a linguistic study is
carried out, the investigator will be faced with the prospect of
understanding, and then explaining to others, the meaning of the data
which have been collected. An essential first step in this process is to
look for ways of summarizing the results which bring out their most
obvious features"
MEASURES OF FREQUENCY
• used to indicate how often a particular behavior or phenomenon
occurs.

• frequencies may also be represented graphically in forms such as

histograms, bar graphs, or frequency polygons. In these graphic
representations, the categories are typically plotted along the
horizontal axis (x-axis), whereas the frequencies are plotted along the
vertical axis (y-axis).
MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY
• Second language researchers often use one or more measures of
central tendency to provide precise quantitative information about
the typical behavior of learners with respect to a particular
phenomenon. There are three commonly used measures of central
tendency.
MODE
• the easiest measure of central tendency to identify is the mode.
Simply put, the mode is the most frequent score obtained by a
particular group of learners. For example, if the ESL proficiency test
scores recorded for a group of students were 78, 92, 92, 74, 89, and
80, the mode would be 92 because two students in this sample
obtained that score.
• the mode does not always give an accurate picture of the typical
behavior of the group and is not commonly employed in second
language research.
MEDIAN
• The median is the score at the center of the distribution—that is, the
score that splits the group in half. For example, in our series of ESL
proficiency test scores (78, 92, 92, 74, 89, 80), we would find the
median by first ordering the scores (74, 78, 80, 89, 92, 92) and then
finding the score at the center. Because we have an even number of
scores in this case (namely, six), we would take the midpoint between
the two middle scores (80 & 89), or 84.5.
MEAN
The most common measure of central tendency is the mean, or the
arithmetic average
The mean may be represented visually through the use of graphics,
including the bar graph.
MEASURES OF DISPERSION
consider the hypothetical case of two groups of learners who take a
final exam. One group of students obtains scores of 45, 99, 57,17, 63,
and 100, whereas the other group obtains scores of 66,62,65,64,63,
and 60. Both groups have approximately the same mean (63.5 & 63.3,
respectively). However, if you report only the mean, you will not be
able to show that the groups have a fairly different dispersion of scores:
One group's scores are all close to the mean; the other group's scores
are more widely dispersed.
One informal way to do so is by presenting the range of
scores. The range is the number of points between the
highest and lowest scores on the measure. For
example, the range for the first group of test scores
would be 83 (17-100), whereas the range for the
second would be 6 (60-66). The range, although easy to
calculate, is not commonly reported in second language
studies because it is sensitive to extreme scores and
thus is not always a reliable index of variability.
STANDARD DEVIATION
the standard deviation is a number that shows how
scores are spread around the mean; specifically, it is
the square root of the average squared distance of the
scores from the mean. In other words, one takes the
differences between each score and the mean and
squares that difference. The next step is to add up
these squared values, and divide by the sample size.
The resulting number is called the variance. The
standard deviation is the square root of the variance.
The larger the standard deviation, the more
variability there is in a particular group of scores.
Conversely, a smaller standard deviation indicates
that the group is more homogeneous in terms of
a particular behavior.
PROBABILITY
Probability is an expression of the likelihood of something happening
again and again. For example, if the probability is .05, there is a 5%
possibility that the results were obtained by chance alone
TYPE I AND II ERRORS
Type I errors occur when a null hypothesis is rejected when it should
not have been rejected;

Type II errors occur when a null hypothesis is accepted when it should

not have been accepted.
INFERENTIAL STATISTICS
Given that it is impossible to gather data from all
members
of the population, inferential statistics can allow
researchers to generalize findings to other, similar
language learners; that is, to make inferences
Degrees of Freedom
To put it simply, the degree of freedom is the number
of scores that are not fixed. Suppose we know that our
total value on a test adds up to 50 and we have 5
scores contributing to this value of 50. If we know what
4 of the scores are, the 5th one is fixed; it cannot vary.
In other words, only one of the scores cannot vary. In
this case, 4 represents the degrees of freedom.
CRITICAL VALUES - When a statistic is
calculated, the numerical result of the
calculation is compared against
the statistical table, to determine whether it
reaches the critical value. If
the result of the calculation reaches or
surpasses the appropriate value,
the findings are considered statistically
significant.
Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
ANOVA results provide an F value, which is a ratio
of the amount of variation between the groups to
the amount of variation within the groups.
Example: You have conducted a study in which you are comparing
the effectiveness of three different types of instruction. You are
confident that the assumptions of a parametric test have been
met. You want to compare the results and use an ANOVA to see if
group differences are due to chance or are sufficient to reject the
null hypothesis.
PEARSON PRODUCT MOMENT CORRELATION