Below is the first question for Research Methods. As you can see it is rather detailed and in depth. Considering the trouble I am having with the readings I certainly have my work cut out for me.

Part 1
Which statistical procedure would you employ in the following studies (A-D). Indicate the appropriate procedure by placing a number in the bracket and give the reason for your choice. Only one procedure is required per study.

1. Independent t test
2. Dependent t test
3. Chi square
4. Analysis of Variance
5. Mann Whitney’s U
6. Wilcoxon’s Matched Pairs Signed Ranks Test
7. Pearson’s correlation

A This study investigated the relationship between scores on a traditional standardised test of oral proficiency and a new test of communicative speaking ability. One hundred participants took both tests. The investigators wanted to determine whether the participants who scored well on the traditional test did well on the innovative test and vice versa.
[ ]Give your reason
B This study examined the effect of content familiarity on the reading comprehension of secondary level second language learners. Eight participants were given two test passages to read, and their comprehension was tested on a multiple choice test. The test passages were analysed using the Lix readability formula which showed they were both at the same level of linguistic difficulty. However, one passage was on a topic familiar to the students while the other was on an unfamiliar topic.
[ ] Give your reason

C In this investigation, the researcher wanted to find out whether the native like production of word final consonants and consonant clusters varied according to the type of communicative task in which the learner is engaged. She collected data from a single subject as he took part in three different tasks - free conversation, oral reading of continuous text, and elicited imitation of word and short phrases.
[ ] Give your reason

D A study was established to test the hypothesis that field dependent learners would benefit more from learning grammar inductively, while field independent learners would benefit from learning deductively. One group of field dependent participants and one group of field independent participants were taught inductively. A second group of field dependent participants and a second group of field independent participants were taught deductively. Pre- and post-treatment scores on a standardised test of grammar were administered.
[ ] Give your reason

Part 2
The following hypothetical study is presented by Brown. Read the study and identify the independent and dependent variables. Jas Menbrow noticed that people do not always perform in their native language with equal ability. It occurred to him that there might be some relationship between the native language ability of his American students and their proficiency in French after three years of high school study. To investigate this possibility, he administered the verbal sub- test of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (to measure proficiency in native English) and his school district’s French Proficiency Test to all 132 students who were finishing their third year of study. He was concerned that differences between the sexes should not interfere with the results, so he eliminated all males from his analysis. Thus 89 female students were left. In addition, he wanted to determine what differences there might be between the women in the college-bound track (44 students) and those in the accelerated track (45 students). So he considered the two groups separately on this basis.
Part 3
RESEARCH OUTLINE

Jane Smith, in addition to having an imaginative name, is a creative and innovative teacher. She developed a genre-based writing package and wanted to collect evidence that the package was more effective than the writing program currently in use, which had been developed some years before by her head of department, and was based on a process writing approach. Last semester she taught an EAP writing course to two different classes. Class A consisted of undergraduates from the International Christian University in Tokyo who were spending a semester studying in an Australian university. Class B consisted of a group of NESB immigrant students who were taking the EAP course for credit in their undergraduate degree programs. Jane decided to use her innovative genre-based package with class B, and the traditional course with class A. At the end of the course she administered a test in the form of an essay assignment. Students received a score out of 100 based on the following criteria.

1. Schematic structure Is the schematic structure of the text appropriate for the genre of the text?
2. Topicalization Does the writer explicitly identify the topic and was the topic developed appropriately?
3. Reference Does the writer use reference appropriately?

When group means were computed, Jane found that class A obtained a class average of 64.35%. Class B, on the other hand, obtained a class average of 71.32%. She therefore concluded that the innovative package was superior to the traditional package. She wrote up an account of her research and presented it to her head of department.

1. Identify the following:
” Research question:
” Participants:
” Dependent variable:
” Independent variable:
” Key concept(s)/ construct(s):
” How concept(s)/construct(s) are operationalized:
” Population to which research applies:
2. Jane’s report was severely criticised by her head of department. The head was particularly critical of the internal and external validity of the study. What do you think these criticisms were?
3. If you wanted to test Jane’s data for significance, which of the following statistical tools would you employ? Give a reason for your choice.
a. ANOVA
b. dependent t test
c. correlation
d. Mann Whitney U
e. chi square
f. Wilcoxon’s matched-pairs signed-ranks
g. independent t test