Assessing the Use of Statistical Techniques and Tools in Master Dissertations: The case of Linguistics Master Dissertations at M’sila University.

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.