Statistics for linguists revisited: the review of some basic statistical tools in linguistic research and data analysis

Abstract

The major aim of this paper is to emphasise the importance of implementing statistical tools in the field of linguistic research, as well as to acquaint the reader with the basic statistical methods that can be used while conducting linguistic studies. The article introduces the idea of five steps in data analysis that any researcher of applied linguistics can take in order to carry out relevant studies. The steps include choosing statistical programmes, eliciting data, selecting some visual methods and applying normality tests, as well as choosing applicable parametric or nonparametric tests, all of which requires appropriate planning, designing, analysing and interpreting data. The theoretical part is an interlude to the practical realisation of the above-mentioned five steps, which is based on the part of linguistic research conducted on the students of English Philology. The major purpose of it was to prove (or refute) that there is a positive correlation between participants’ level of musical intelligence and their L2 pronunciation skills. The practical use of statistical methods enables the readers to familiarise themselves with one of the patterns of statistical analysis in the field of applied linguistics.