Article contents
SAMPLE SIZE PLANNING IN QUANTITATIVE L2 RESEARCH
A PRAGMATIC APPROACH
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 April 2020
Abstract
Researchers are traditionally advised to plan for their required sample size such that achieving a sufficient level of statistical power is ensured (Cohen, 1988). While this method helps distinguishing statistically significant effects from the nonsignificant ones, it does not help achieving the higher goal of accurately estimating the actual size of those effects in an intended study. Adopting an open-science approach, this article presents an alternative approach, accuracy in effect size estimation (AESE), to sample size planning that ensures that researchers obtain adequately narrow confidence intervals (CI) for their effect sizes of interest thereby ensuring accuracy in estimating the actual size of those effects. Specifically, I (a) compare the underpinnings of power-analytic and AESE methods, (b) provide a practical definition of narrow CIs, (c) apply the AESE method to various research studies from L2 literature, and (d) offer several flexible R programs to implement the methods discussed in this article.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Open Practices
- Open materials
- Copyright
- © Cambridge University Press 2020
Footnotes
The experiment in this article earned an Open Materials badge and an Open Data Badge for transparent practices. The materials and data are available at https://github.com/rnorouzian/i/blob/master/i.r.
References
REFERENCES
- 13
- Cited by