Developing Readers’ Research Literacy

Abstract

Norris and Ortega’s (2000) meta-analysis of second language teaching pedagogies is impressive in its scope. More meta-analyses such as this would be highly beneficial to the field of SLA. This research revealed two interesting points. The first concerns flaws in experimental and quasiexperimental studies in SLA. Many papers do not provide enough statistical data for others to reexamine the reliability and/or validity of a given study, or to replicate it in another setting. As Norris and Ortega mentioned, many studies do not report the descriptive statistics because of the page limits for submission to journals. However, the sample size of an investigation and preexperimental values, among other statistics, are important data for readers to evaluate. Stated significant differences might be meaningless if compared groups started at different proficiency levels, or if sample sizes were too small. Despite limited publishing space, it is still important to include some mention of descriptive statistics.