Challenges of Teaching Statistics to EFL Undergraduates: Action Research
- DOI
- 10.2991/miseic-18.2018.45How to use a DOI?
- Keywords
- Statistics; language teaching; EFL
- Abstract
The present paper reports the challenges that the researcher had when teaching statistics to undergraduates majoring in the teaching of English and how to overcome them. It attempted to describe: (1) how to increase their motivation to learn statistics, and (2) how to improve their ability in statistical analysis. Approached qualitatively and quantitatively, this study was conducted by using mixed-method action research. The research subjects consisted of forty-one undergraduates attending the Quantitative and Qualitative Analyses class in the English Department, and were selected purposively. Data were collected by means of these instruments: participatory observations, exercises, focus group discussions and a statistics test. The results indicated that setting clear instructional goals and relating statistics to the undergraduates’ study and future duties in the teaching profession could increase their motivation to learn statistics. To improve their ability in statistical analysis, it was better for them to avoid using software immediately to analyze numbers; rather, they should learn to compute numbers manually while at the same time trying to find out what each term meant and how to interpret the results. Based on these findings, some implications for the teaching of statistics to the EFL undergraduates were described.
- Copyright
- © 2018, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.
- Open Access
- This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
Cite this article
TY - CONF AU - Kusumarasdyati Kusumarasdyati PY - 2018/07 DA - 2018/07 TI - Challenges of Teaching Statistics to EFL Undergraduates: Action Research BT - Proceedings of the Mathematics, Informatics, Science, and Education International Conference (MISEIC 2018) PB - Atlantis Press SP - 184 EP - 188 SN - 1951-6851 UR - https://doi.org/10.2991/miseic-18.2018.45 DO - 10.2991/miseic-18.2018.45 ID - Kusumarasdyati2018/07 ER -