An Investigation of the Predictors of Statistical Literacy in Second Language Acquisition

Abstract

The use of statistics in second language acquisition (SLA) research has increased over the past 30-40years and continues to increase in both complexity and sophistication (Gass, 2009; Loewen & Gass,2009). The increased use of statistical procedures has drawn attention to the current state of statisticalliteracy among second language (L2) researchers. Statistical literacy is a critical skill to acquire on theparts of both the producers and consumers of L2 research. However, it is a relatively new research topicin the field. So, little is known regarding what factors play key roles in the development of statisticalliteracy. Therefore, this study attempted to investigate the predictors of statistical literacy in SLA. Onehundred and twenty SLA doctoral students took a statistical background questionnaire and a disciplinespecific statistics survey. A series of multiple regression analyses were conducted on the statistics surveydata. The results indicated that number of statistics courses taken, quantitative research orientation,and self-training in statistics were the significant predictors of statistical literacy. In light of the findingsof this study, several suggestions directed toward improving statistical literacy in the field of SLA weremade.© 2018 EJAL & the Authors. Published by Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics (EJAL). This is an open-accessarticle distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY-NC-ND)(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).