Fear of Statistics among TEFL Postgraduate Students

Autor/inn/en	Amirian, Seyed Mohammad Reza; Abbasi-Sosfadi, Saeed
Titel	Fear of Statistics among TEFL Postgraduate Students
Quelle	In: Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 7 (2021) 1, S.202-221 (20 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Amirian, Seyed Mohammad Reza) ORCID (Abbasi-Sosfadi, Saeed)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	2149-1135
Schlagwörter	Graduate Students; Teacher Education Programs; Second Language Learning; Second Language Instruction; English (Second Language); Language Teachers; Anxiety; Statistics Education; Underachievement; Fear; Student Surveys; Student Attitudes; Questionnaires + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Graduate Study; Student; Students; Aufbaustudium; Graduiertenstudium; Hauptstudium; Studentin; Zweitsprachenerwerb; Fremdsprachenunterricht; English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Language teacher; Sprachunterricht; Angst; Performance deficiency; Leistungsschwäche; Furcht; Schülerbefragung; Schülerverhalten; Fragebogen
Abstract	Although statistics is an important compulsory course in a wide variety of disciplines, the vast majority of students including TEFL postgraduate students find it frightening and difficult to understand, and thus suffer from underachievement. As a result, a specific kind of anxiety called statistical anxiety emerges that requires immediate attention. To date, a large and growing body of research has focused on exploring different aspects and dimensions of statistics that produce fear and tension. However, the problem of fear of statistics amongst TEFL postgraduate students has received scant attention in the literature. In this study, attempts are made to assess and describe the areas of anxiety that TEFL postgraduate students experience during a statistics course. To this end, the present study employed a descriptive research design, i.e., survey research. First, a statistical anxiety questionnaire, which reflects three correlated dimensions of statistical anxiety including Examination Anxiety, Asking for Help Anxiety, and Interpretation Anxiety, was distributed among 72 TEFL postgraduate students. Then, interview sessions were held with 10 participants for the purpose of further exploration of the participants' responses to the questionnaire items. Analysis revealed that examination anxiety has the highest frequency among other subscales, while the lowest frequency belongs to asking for help anxiety. These descriptive results together with the conceptualization of participants' perspectives regarding their major concerns in statistics have clear implications for statistics teachers, course developers, policy makers, and TEFL postgraduate students. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics. Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Anafartalar Campus Faculty of Education Department of Foreign Language Education, Canakkale 07100, Turkey. e-mail: editor@ejal.info; Website: https://www.ejal.info/index.php/ejal
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01