Dr Vahid Nimehchisalem, senior lecturer from the Department of English Language of Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia delivered an interactive talk titled “Statistics in Language and Educational Research” on 3 July 2019 at UTAR Sungai Long Campus. The talk was organised by the Centre for Modern Languages and Literature (CMLL) in collaboration with Department of Modern Languages (DML), Faculty of Creative Industries (FCI).

Dr Vahid Nimehchisalem

In his talk, Dr Vahid presented the significance of statistical skills in conducting high impact research to the audience. “Statistics is a tool for making predictions and generalisable decisions. The statistical skills that you own will help you to better understand the literature, collect data, and analyse and interpret research results more confidently,” said Dr Vahid.

“Most of us find quantitative research difficult. Do not just try qualitative, go for quantitative by going to workshops and learning to apply it in your research; you should learn to use both of them,” Dr Vahid added.

His presentation covered descriptive versus inferential statistics, parametric versus nonparametric statistical methods and common statistical misconceptions. Dr Vahid explained how sampling works in research and elaborated on common errors made by researchers when selecting samples. He discussed common statistical misconceptions such as the preference for larger sample sizes among researchers; and reminded participants that the data collected should be processed first prior to running any form of statistical analysis. He emphasised that sample size is relative to the issue being studied, and gave two studies as examples. The first study was on the impact of how consumption of cocoa impacts diabetes in rats, in which a sample size of 5 rats was deemed sufficient. The second study was a study on anxiety that required a larger sample of the population.

Dr Swagata Sinha Roy volunteered to write down the answers on the board

Lee Saan Sam, the emcee of the event

Participants at the event

Token of appreciation to Dr Vahid from Dr Nadya (right)

A token of appreciation was given to Dr Vahid by Centre for Modern Languages and Literature Chairperson Dr Nadya Supian.

“Research means development; the reason why R&D comes together. The more research you do, the more developed you will be. Research to me is the difference between confidence and, the lack of confidence,” Dr Vahid said.

The talk concluded with a Q&A session between Dr Vahid and the participants who asked various questions on statistical analysis and raised issues related to research.