RESEARCH ON ELT I

Lecture II

Rida Wahyuningrum
English Department
Wijaya Kusuma University, Surabaya

By the end of this course, you will be

able to :

mention the definition

and types of variable

What is
Variable?

VARIABLE

A measurable characteristic
that varies and may change
from group to group, person to
person, or even within one
person over time.

VARIABLE
An attribute of a person or of an
object which varies from person
to person or from object to object
( Hatch and Farhady, 1982:2).
Conditions by which the
researcher manipulates,
controls, or observes in a
study.
(YW Best)

TYPES OF
VARIABLES

NOMINAL/CATEGORICAL
VARIABLE
A categorical variable (sometimes called a
nominal variable) is one that has two or
more categories, but there is no intrinsic
ordering to the categories.
Example : gender, marital status,
kinds of job

ORDINAL VARIABLE
An ordinal variable is similar to a
categorical variable but there is a clear
ordering of the variables. For example,
suppose you have a variable.
Example : economic status, with three
categories (low, medium and high).

INTERVAL VARIABLE
An interval variable is similar to an ordinal
variable, except that the intervals
between the values of the interval
variable are equally spaced.
Example : annual income with three
people who make $10,000, $15,000 and
$20,000 . The interval is the same.

RATIO VARIABLE
This variable has all the properties of
an interval variable, and also has a
clear definition of 0.0. When the
variable equals 0.0, there is none of
that variable.
Example : height, weight, enzyme activity.
Temperature, expressed in F or C, is not a ratio
variable. A temperature of 0.0 on either of those
scales does not mean 'no heat'. However,
temperature in Kelvin is a ratio variable, as 0.0
Kelvin really does mean 'no heat'.

DEPENDENT VARIABLE
This variable shows the effect of
manipulating or introducing the
independent variables.
For example, if the independent variable is the use or
non-use of a new language teaching procedure, then
the dependent variable might be students' scores on
a test of the content taught using that procedure.

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE
These variables are those that the researcher has
control over. This "control" may involve
manipulating existing variables (e.g., modifying
existing methods of instruction) or introducing new
variables (e.g., adopting a totally new method for
some sections of a class) in the research setting.

INTERVENING VARIABLE
This refers to abstract processes that are not directly
observable but that link the independent and dependent
variables. In language learning and teaching, they are
usually inside the subjects' heads, including various
language learning processes which the researcher cannot
observe.

For example, if the use of a particular teaching technique

is the independent variable and mastery of the objectives
is the dependent variable, then the language learning
processes used by the subjects are the intervening
variables.

MODERATOR VARIABLE
This variable affects the relationship between
the independent and dependent variables by
modifying the effect of the intervening
variable(s). These variables are measured
and taken into consideration. Typical
moderator variables in TESL and language
acquisition research (when they are not the
major focus of the study) include the sex,
age, culture, or language proficiency of the
subjects.

CONTROLLED VARIABLE
Language learning and teaching are very
complex processes. It is not possible to
consider every variable in a single study.
Therefore, the variables that are not
measured in a particular study must be held
constant, neutralized/balanced, or
eliminated, so they will not have a biasing
effect on the other variables.

CONTROLLED VARIABLE
For example:
Comparing cleaning products, the brand of
cleaning product would be the only independent
variable measured. The level of dirt and soiling, the
type of dirt or stain, the temperature of the water
and the time of the cleaning cycle are just some of
the variables that must be the same between
experiments. Failure to standardize even one of
these controlled variable could cause a
confounding variable and invalidate the results.

EXTRANEOUS VARIABLE
Extraneous variables are undesirable
variables that influence the relationship
between the variables that an experimenter
is examining. These are variables that
influence the outcome of an experiment,
though they are not the variables that are
actually of interest. These variables are
undesirable because they add error to an
experiment.

EXTRANEOUS VARIABLE
For example:
An educational psychologist has developed a new
learning strategy and is interested in examining the
effectiveness of this strategy. The experimenter
randomly assigns students to two groups. All of the
students study text materials on a biology topic for
thirty minutes. One group uses the new strategy and
the other uses a strategy of their choice. Then all
students complete a test over the materials. One
obvious confounding variable in this case would be
pre-knowledge of the biology topic that was studied.
This variable will most likely influence student scores,
regardless of which strategy they use.