Assessing the Use of Statistical Techniques and Tools in Master Dissertations: The case of Linguistics Master Dissertations at M’sila University.
Loading...
Date
2023-07
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Abstract
This descriptive study’s objective is to assess the use of statistical tools and techniques in
linguistics master dissertations. Accordingly, it seeks to explore relevant methodological
awareness about aspects related to data collection tools, research methods and sampling
techniques used in master dissertations. It seeks to test the appropriateness of the used
statistical tools, research methods and sampling techniques. Inductive content analysis is used
as the main data collection tool. The sample of the study constituted of 138 linguistics master
dissertations from 2018 up to 2022 at the English language department at M’sila University.
The collected corpora of linguistics master dissertations of the five academic years were
analyzed by means of content analysis grid designed by the researcher for the purpose of this
study. The data were analyzed quantitatively in frequencies and percentages. The findings of
the study revealed that the most used data collection tool is the questionnaire, compared to the
interview, the observation, and the test. It was found that most dissertations used the
descriptive method and that almost all the dissertations did not include the validity and
reliability of data collection methods. As for the statistical tools, it was found that the most
used descriptive statistics are frequencies and percentages, and that only few studies used
simple inferential statistics including only the T test. Advanced inferential statistics were not
used in the whole five years corpus. Inappropriate use of sample size and sample selection
methods was detected in this study. Eventually, this study recommends the need to provide
linguistics students with adequate statistics knowledge in order to improve their practices and
enhance the validity of their studies.
Description
Keywords
Keywords: Descriptive Statistics, Inferential Statistics, Research Methods, Reliability, Validity, Data Collection tools, Master Dissertation