Tag: Research
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Do I need permission to evaluate language teaching textbooks?
When is copying content from a language textbook fair use, in a student research project?
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Researching multilingually: More than meets the eye?
Introducing a new series of posts on the intricacies of doing multilingual research!
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Doing survey research: A collection of resources
Over time, I have written a number of posts on doing survey research, and I had been thinking of bringing them together in a single ‘index’ post for ease of reference, but somehow never managed to get round to it. Since I am currently not creating any new content, this is as good an opportunity as any, so here goes: An…
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Revisiting Likert scales, levels of measurement: a nuanced understanding
This post revisits the debate about Likert scales: are they ordinal or interval data, and what does this mean for analysis? While individual items only yield ordinal data, some argue composite scales may be treated as interval. The discussion weighs these perspectives, highlights common pitfalls (like calculating means), and points readers to further resources on…
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Designing questionnaires in language education research: Layout
Perhaps you already know how to write effective questionnaire questions and how to sequence them intelligently. But what about the more practical aspects of questionnaire design. This post gives you some ideas and tips.
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How to use Likert scales effectively
Many questionnaires use Likert items & scales to elicit information about language teaching and learning. In this post, I discuss how to use these instruments effectively, by looking into the difference between items and scales, and explaining how to analyse the data that they produce.
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Writing effective questionnaire items in language education research (Part 2)
This post contains practical advice that will help you to formulate and sequence the items in your questionnaire. It is mainly addressed to students working in language education, but much of the content can be applied in most of quantitative research.
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Writing effective questionnaire items in language education research (Part 1)
If you are doing a quantitative research in language education, this post will help you to avoid three of the most common problems involved in the construction of questionnaire items.
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Doing research without a control group
This article discusses control groups in second language teaching research, and whether these might be omitted from a research design.