STATISTICS AS A FOREIGN-LANGUAGE .1. WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN READING STATISTICAL LANGUAGE STUDIES

This article is addressed to those practicing EFL/ESL teachers who currently avoid statistical studies. In particular, it is designed to provide teachers with strategies that can help them gain access to statistical studies on language learning and teaching so that they can use the information found in such articles to better serve their students. To that end, five attack strategies are advocated and discussed: (a) use the abstract to decide if the study has value for you; (b) let the conventional organization of the paper help you; (c) examine the statistical reasoning involved in the study; (d) evaluate what you have read in relation to your professional experience; and (e) learn more about statistics and research design. Each of these strategies is discussed, and examples are drawn from the article following this one in this issue of the TESOL Quarterly.