Methods and Statistics 1

Course goals

Please note: this course is taught in both Dutch and English. Check "Additional information" for details.

After completing this course, students:
- have acquired insight in the foundations of empirical-analytical scientific research, in particular as found in research in the fields of language, linguistics, and communication. 
- will understand
 (1) which questions are suitable for scientific research,  
 (2) how various types of validity may be threatened, 
 (3) how valid research may be designed,
 (4) how data are described, summarized, analyzed, and used to make inferences as well as
 (5) the relations between these aspects of scientific research
- have acquired elementary practical skills in describing, summarizing, and analyzing data, and in using data to make inferences,
- have practiced the writing skills and other academic skills to report empirical findings. 

Content

First, you will become thoroughly acquainted with the foundations and principles and methods of empirical research, in particular of the type of research involving statistical techniques. What constitutes a good research question? What are the limitations of scientific knowledge? What properties of the design of a study allow us to draw valid and meaningful conclusions?
Secondly, you will be introduced to a variety of research methods often encountered in research in language, linguistics, and communication: the experiment, the questionnaire, and the corpus study. You will learn the stronger and weaker aspects of these methods, focusing mainly on the experiment.
Thirdly, you will learn the practical skills to perform elementary statistical analyses of empirical findings. You will also learn how to report, interpret and evaluate the outcomes of these analyses.


 

Additional information

Please note: the time slot shown here is not yet final and may still be modified until the 3rd Wednesday in September. 

In this course you will learn the basic principles and methods of empirical research, in particular the type of research that uses statistics. The course is offered in both Dutch and English. The English track is intended for students of the English Language and Culture BA and international students.

Please note: If you want to register for the English track, you must explicitly indicate your language preference for the lectures and the seminars, then choose English as the language of instruction. If you don’t indicate your preference, you will automatically be placed in the Dutch track. Placement in the English track is subject to availability.

For students of TCS and LAS this is the compulsary basic research course (Dutch track) that belongs to the specialisations Communication, Organisation and Interaction (COI) and Culture, Communication and Diversity (CCD). This course is also optional for the compulsory methodology course in the following BA programmes: German, English, French, Italian, Dutch, and Spanish. The course is also compulsory for pre-master students of the MA Communicatie & Organisatie (Dutch track). The course is also open to students from other programmes with an interest in methods of empirical research and the statistical techniques used.

This course is equivalent to the following courses:

• Methoden en statistiek 1 (TW2V17001 and TW2V19002),
• Meth Hyp-Toetsend Oz (TL3V14002)

and cannot be taken in combination with:

• Ciw-Empirisch onderzoek (CI2V13002)
• Ciw-Methoden van Communicatieonderzoek (CI2V17002).

If you have already completed one of these courses, you may not take Methods and Statistics 1 due to too much overlap in content.