Open AccessLEARNING THE LANGUAGE OF STATISTICS: CHALLENGES AND TEACHING APPROACHES
Author(s) -
Peter K. Dunn,
Michael Carey,
Alice Richardson,
Christine McDonald
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
statistics education research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1570-1824
DOI - 10.52041/serj.v15i1.255
Subject(s) - statistics education , statistics , mathematics education , summary statistics , descriptive statistics , computer science , teaching method , language acquisition , language education , psychology , linguistics , mathematics , philosophy
Learning statistics requires learning the language of statistics. Statistics draws upon words from general English, mathematical English, discipline-specific English and words used primarily in statistics. This leads to many linguistic challenges in teaching statistics and the way in which the language is used in statistics creates an extra layer of challenge. This paper identifies several challenges in teaching statistics related to language. Some implications for the effective learning and teaching of statistics are raised and methods to help students overcome these linguistic challenges are suggested.
First published May 2016 at Statistics Education Research Journal Archives