Survey research on communication and language for English language learners and native English speakers enrolled in a college course on statistical literacy
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine in what ways language is a factor that affects the learning process of students in an introductory statistics class. This research used a questionnaire survey instrument called: CLASS, Communication, Language And Statistics Survey that was applied to a total of 137 college students from a large southwestern public university, 83 of these students were self-identified as native English speakers (NOELL) and 53 were self-identified as English learner speakers (ELL) and one was dropped. This research found that in statistical instruction, there are some particular differences in behavior and learning process in the ELL students that differ from NOELL students. ELL students need more time to answer questions and they pretend to understand (e.g. nodding with the head) when the teacher is looking at them. NOELL students think that context will help to understand the meaning of a statistical result.
Subject Area
Statistics|Higher education
Recommended Citation
Valenzuela, Maria G, "Survey research on communication and language for English language learners and native English speakers enrolled in a college course on statistical literacy" (2009). ETD Collection for University of Texas, El Paso. AAI1473896.
https://scholarworks.utep.edu/dissertations/AAI1473896