SPSS as the Statistical Package Used for the Analysis - Assignment Example

RESULTS This section provides the statistical analysis and results of the data gathered as well the interpretations. SPSS is the statistical package used for the analysis. Two tasks were defined to compare the usage and importance given to the English language in private and state schools. The method of data collection is through an adaptation of a questionnaire about the learning and teaching of English vocabulary. The variables used in the study were chosen to satisfy the research hypotheses. Few variables have been derived from the original variables. The adaption includes the research questions, hypotheses and methodology. The study is reduced to the involvement of only two ordinal variables and hence statistical designs using two-variables are only used to obtain results. It has to be mentioned that at the time of the original data collection, private schools had the reputation of being better and more progressive than state schools with respect to English teaching. The first research hypothesis intends to analyze the importance given by teachers to explain the meaning of new English words to students. That is, there is difference between state and private schools in the extent to which teachers explain the meaning of new words in English; specifically teachers will explain words in English more in the private school. The design involves only two independent groups and the dependent variable is the score or rating. The descriptive statistics (Table 1) shows that the study involved 108 students, 67 belonging to the state schools and 41 belonging to private schools. The average of the rating given by the private school students (0.5366) is greater than that of the public school students (0.4627). Table 1 Group Statistics School N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Teacher explains meaning in English State 67 .4627 .58590 .07158 Private 41 .5366 .63630 .09937 A frequency chart (Fig. 1) was produced to compare the ratings the given by the students between state and public schools on the extent to which teachers explain the meaning of new words in English. The least rating was 0 representing never and 3 representing always. It is noticed that nearly 40 students of the state schools claimed that their teachers never explained the meaning of the English words. Nearly 44 students of the private schools claimed that their teachers either never or seldom explained the meaning of the English words. Only 1 student agreed that the teachers always explained the meaning. Figure 1 The independent samples T test is used to test the equality of the above given averages. The Levene’s test also is used to find whether the assumption of homogeneity of variables is satisfied. Table 2 shows the results. Since the p-value (0.829) of the Levene’s test is greater than 0.05, it is proved that the assumption of homogeneity of variances is satisfied. Hence the result of the t-test considering this assumption is used for interpretation. The t value (-0.616) is found to be statistically insignificant at 0.025 level of significance with p-value = 0.2695. Moreover, the difference between the sample means for ‘Teacher explains in English’ is so small (-.07390) that it could easily arise by chance just due to the nature of random sampling from what are in fact school populations which have zero difference. Thus the null hypothesis is accepted that there is no difference between the state and private schools in the extent to which teachers explain the meaning of new words in English; specifically teachers will explain words in English more in the private school. Table 2 Independent Samples Test Levenes Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means F Sig. t Df Sig. (2-tailed) Mean Difference Std. Error Difference 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper Teacher explains meaning in English Equal variances assumed .047 .829 -.616 106 .539 -.07390 .12004 -.31189 .16410 Equal variances not assumed -.603 79.332 .548 -.07390 .12247 -.31765 .16985 An alternative method of comparing the means of the samples is the Mann-Whitney test, a non-parametric test equivalent to the independent samples t test. The p-value (0.554/2 = 0.277) in Table 4 shows that the Mann-Whitney U (1292) is statistically insignificant at 0.025 level of significance. Thus there is no evidence to conclude that there is a difference between state school and private school in the extent to which teachers explain the meaning of new words in English. Table 3 Ranks School N Mean Rank Sum of Ranks Teacher explains meaning in English State 67 53.28 3570.00 Private 41 56.49 2316.00 Total 108 Table 4 Test Statisticsa Teacher explains meaning in English Mann-Whitney U 1292.000 Wilcoxon W 3570.000 Z -.591 Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .554 a. Grouping Variable: School The second research hypothesis intends to analyze the importance given to English by teachers. That is, the teachers are expected to explain the meaning of English words more in Greek than in English regardless of school. This would enable students to grasp the clear meaning of the English words better. The design is a simple repeated measure comparing the paired scores of a group. The descriptive statistics (Table 5) shows that the two variables involved were the rating of the teachers explaining the meaning of English words more in English and Greek irrespective of the schools. The average of the rating given to teacher explaining meaning in Greek (2.611) is greater than that of the teacher explaining in English (0.4907). Table 5 Paired Samples Statistics Mean N Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Pair 1 Teacher explains meaning in English .4907 108 .60366 .05809 Teacher explains meaning in Greek 2.6111 108 .56093 .05398 Frequency charts along with normal curve were produced to analyze the ratings the given by the school students to the teachers explaining the meaning of English words in English and Greek respectively. The least rating was 0 representing never and 3 representing always. It is noticed from Fig. 2 that nearly 60 students claimed that their teachers never explained the meaning of the English words in English. The distribution followed is right-tailed normal distribution. Fig. 3 shows that more than 60 students claimed that their teachers always explained the meaning in Greek. That is the distribution is left-tailed normal distribution. Figure 2 Figure 3 The paired samples t test is used to test the significance of the difference between the mean ratings of the two variables. Table 6 shows the results. The t value (-23.092) is found to be statistically highly significant at 0.025 level of significance with p-value = 0.000. Moreover, the mean difference is -2.12037 with a standard error of 0.09182. Thus there is sufficient evidence that teachers are expected (more likely) to explain the meaning of new words more in Greek than in English, regardless of school. Table 6 Paired Samples Test Paired Differences Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference t df Sig. (2-tailed) Lower Upper Pair 1 Teacher explains meaning in English - Teacher explains meaning in Greek -2.12037 .95426 .09182 -2.30240 -1.93834 -23.092 107 .000 An alternative test used to the paired samples test is the non-parametric Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test. Table 7 gives the ranks of the two variables. It can be noticed that 102 students claim that their teachers explain the meaning of English words in Greek more than in English. Only 1 student agrees that his/her teacher explains the meaning of English words in English only. Table 8 shows that the p-value (0.000) of the Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test is statistically highly significant at 0.05 level of significance. Table 7 Ranks N Mean Rank Sum of Ranks Teacher explains meaning in Greek - Teacher explains meaning in English Negative Ranks 1a 12.00 12.00 Positive Ranks 102b 52.39 5344.00 Ties 5c Total 108 a. Teacher explains meaning in Greek < Teacher explains meaning in English b. Teacher explains meaning in Greek > Teacher explains meaning in English c. Teacher explains meaning in Greek = Teacher explains meaning in English Table 8 Test Statisticsb Teacher explains meaning in Greek - Teacher explains meaning in English Z -8.929a Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .000 a. Based on negative ranks. b. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test Thus there is sufficient evidence to conclude that teachers are expected (more likely) to explain the meaning of new words more in Greek than in English, regardless of school. Read More