Does Taking a Foreign Language

Affect a Student’= ;s GPA?

Amy Rubeling<= /span>

K= alyn Anestis B2

<= o:p>

Disclaimer:

This study= was done in an AP Statistics course with relatively small sample sizes. The validity of such studies must = always be questioned. Please keep th= is in mind if you use or report the results of this study.

Abstract:=

It has oft= en been said by teachers and other monumental figures in a student’s career t= hat taking a foreign language will improve the student’s performance. However, is this really true? The purpose of this study is to as= sess the validity of this statement, asking the question, “Does taking a foreign language affect a student’s GPA?” The expected outcome was that stud= ying a foreign language does improve GPA. <= /span>

&nb= sp; A sample of 40 will be taken from a list of juniors at Tates Creek High School. Juniors were chosen because by this point a student may elect whether or not to continue studying a language. They will have completed the manda= tory two-course requirement by then. Systematic sampling was used in this study. Randomly selecting every fifth stu= dent from the alphabetically organized list of Tates Creek High School juniors, a questionnaire will be given to the students to complete anonymously. The two question= s are:

1.&n= bsp; Do you currently take a foreign language?

2.&n= bsp; What was your GPA last semester (fall semester of t= his year 2004-2005)?

The test will not include b= locking for advanced or AP courses, because all that is being studied is merely = taking one of these classes.

After collecting the data, the two means of the variables (takes foreign language= vs, doesn’t take foreign language) will be comp= ared and tested for significance using a two-sample t-test.

METHODOLOGY

In our study, we are examining the effect of foreign language on a studentR= 17;s GPA. We obtained our sample f= rom a printout of the junior class, randomly allocating every fifth student to be questioned. We chose randomly allocating every fifth person because we thou= ght it would be a good number to go by. Because we did not need more than a ten= th of the population we selected the first forty of the three hundred sixty-six students. Since we only chose the first forty of the randomly allocated stu= dents the end of the alphabet was not questioned. However, since the data is collected randomly there is no reason to believe that the data would be affected by this. We did not need to block for gender or race, as we are studying the junior class as a whole.

When reviewing the data, an observer must take into account the interviewer bias= in which a subject may not give completely accurate answers. There may be some variation becaus= e of this. In order to control the responses we asked the questions in the same manner. We first asked them if they took a foreign language and then procee= ded to ask them if they knew their GPA from last semester.

EXPLANATORY DATA ANALYSIS<= /p>

GPA’S= OF JUNIORS, TAKING AND NOT TAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE

&nbs= p; &= nbsp; &nbs= p; &= nbsp; YES = NO

4.0	3.0
3.5	3.0
3.0	3.2
3.2	3.1
2.8	3.2
3.0	3.9
3.75	2.0
4.0	3.5
2.8	3.0
3.3	3.8
3.4	3.0
3.4	3.0
3.0	3.5
3.0	3.6
3.0	&nbs= p;
3.6	&nbs= p;
4.0	&nbs= p;
3.75	&nbs= p;
3.5	&nbs= p;
3.0	&nbs= p;
3.4	&nbs= p;
3.0	&nbs= p;
3.125	&nbs= p;
4.0	&nbs= p;
3.6	&nbs= p;
3.75	&nbs= p;

= &nb= sp;

GPA’s of Students Who do Take and do not

Take a Foreign Language

Axis

X=3D GPA

Y=3D Foreign language

***The top= box plot displays GPA’s of students taking a foreign language, while the bottom box displays GPA’s of students who are not taking a foreign la= nguage. The range for the students who do take a foreign language is (4-2.8) =3D1.2 while, the range for the students who do not take a foreign language is (3.= 9-2) =3D1.9. However, the mean of the students taking foreign language is higher= than those who are not (3.37 vs. 3.2 respectively). The graph of those who are n= ot taking a foreign language is skewed to the right with an outlier of 2.0.

ANALYSIS AND INFERENCE<= /span>

Assumptions

All observations are indepe= ndent and random

The sample size is no more = than 1/10 the population size

Ho: µ1=3Dµ2 µ1=3D the mean GPA’s of students who take a foreign language

Ha: µ1≠µ2 &n= bsp; µ2=3D the mean GPA’s of students who do not take a foreign language

t=3D 1.22

p=3D.23

df =3D23.05

At α= =3D.05 our p-value of .23 is too large and therefore the data is not statistically significant. We fail to reject Ho, meaning that taking a foreign language d= oes not appear to affect your GPA.