Catalog Description: Quantitative approaches to describing and investigating language and language learning\/multilingualism. Levels of measurement, distributions of data, probability, descriptive statistics, confidence intervals, mean differences, effect sizes, correlation, linear regression, basics of statistical hypothesis testing.<\/p>\n
Course Description: Undeniably, language deals with qualities – humans use language to describe, understand, and reason about the world, and to develop relationships with one another. Words represent concepts, and words can be combined to express entirely unique meanings – in context-dependent ways. When seeking to understand language, language learning, and multilingualism, however, quantity also provides an invaluable perspective. Some very important questions demand quantitative answers: How long does it take to learn a language? How strong is the relationship between starting age and proficiency in an additional language? Which words are used more often than others, and by whom? The goals of this course are to (a) connect language and language learning\/multilingualism data with relevant quantitative analyses and (b) develop basic statistical data analysis knowledge and skills. Achieving these goals will prepare you to conduct quantitative research on language and language learning\/multilingualism and use quantitative approaches in related practical fields such as language assessment, language learning materials and technology development, and language program evaluation.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"