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69457-01 - Practical course: Statistical Methods for Literature and Language Studies Using R (3 CP)
| Semester | spring semester 2025 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Cristina Loi (cristina.loi@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | In the past decades, the use of scientific methods for the Humanities has grown exponentially. Today, there are several established empirical methods available to researchers in the various subfields of Literature and Language studies, such as reader-response research, computational stylistics, and corpus linguistics. With scientific methods come statistical analyses of data (e.g., questionnaires of reader response, corpora of literary texts, online reviews, or social media posts). This course will introduce the main scientific approaches in literature and language studies, teaching students to use statistics to answer empirical research questions. You will learn to use the open-source software program R to run statistical code, interpret results and produce basic visualizations of such results. The best way to acquire skills in statistics is to apply statistical analyses (e.g., testing for significance) to answer a research question of your interest. In this course, you will do so by developing a research project of your own choice. Alternatively, you will choose one of the several options for research projects that will be provided to you during the lectures, analyzing empirical data collected in open repositories of reader-response research, computational stylistics, and corpus linguistics (the options provided will deal predominantly, but not exclusively, with literary texts). In between lectures you will work on developing your own research project, testing your hypotheses with the appropriate statistical analyses in R. The course will be in English; thus, you will be asked to discuss, present, and write in English. In between lectures you can make an appointment to come in during office hours to discuss your research project. |
| Learning objectives | The overarching learning objective is to get acquainted with scientific methods for literature and language studies and learn basic statistical skills using R. Upon the completion of this course, you will be able to: 1. Identify the main scientific methods used in literature and language studies. 2. Obtain a basic understanding of descriptive and inferential statistics and how they can be applied to answer empirical questions in literature and language studies. For example, you will be able to: - Investigate whether some demographic components (for example, age and gender) and individual differences (for example, personality differences) lead to differences in how readers experience a particular text or genre. - Identify meaningful trends in a corpus (for example, plot arcs, sentiment analysis) 3. Write a script in R for statistical testing of an empirical hypothesis. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Course auditors welcome |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Wednesday | 14.15-16.00 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Seminarraum S 01 |
Dates
| Modules |
Anglophone Literary and Cultural Studies: Recommendations (PhD subject: Anglophone Literary and Cultural Studies) Doktorat Historisch-vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft: Empfehlungen (PhD subject: Comparative and Historic Linguistics) Doktorat Iberoromanische Sprachwissenschaft: Empfehlungen (PhD subject: Ibero-Romance Linguistics) Doktorat Italienische Sprachwissenschaft: Empfehlungen (PhD subject: Italian Linguistics) Doktorat Sprachwissenschaft des Englischen: Empfehlungen (PhD subject: English Linguistics) French Linguistics: Recommendations (PhD subject: French Linguistics) General Linguistics: Recommendations (PhD subject: General Linguistics) German Linguistics: Recommendations (PhD subject: German Linguistics) Modul: Advanced English Linguistics (Bachelor's degree subject: English) Modul: English Linguistics (Master's degree subject: English) Modul: Forschungspraxis und Vertiefung (Master's degree program: Language and Communication) Modul: Humanities and Social Science Coding (Master's degree subject: Digital Humanities) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft BA (Bachelor's degree subject: English) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft BA (Bachelor's degree subject: Ancient Civilizations) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft BA (Bachelor's degree subject: German Language and Literature) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft BA (Bachelor's degree subject: French Language and Literature) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft BA (Bachelor's degree subject: Spanish Language and Literature) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft BA (Bachelor's degree subject: Italian Language and Literature) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft BA (Bachelor's degree subject: Nordic Philology (Start of studies before 01.08.2022)) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft BA (Bachelor's degree program: Ancient Civilizations) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft BA (Bachelor's degree subject: Nordic Philology) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: Slavic Studies) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: English) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: German Language and Literature) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: French Language and Literature) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: Spanish Language and Literature) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: Italian Language and Literature) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: German Literature) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: Latin Philology) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: Nordic Philology) Modul: Interphilologie: Literaturwissenschaft MA (Master's Studies - Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences) Modul: Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft BA (Bachelor's degree subject: English) Modul: Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft BA (Bachelor's degree subject: German Language and Literature) Modul: Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft BA (Bachelor's degree subject: French Language and Literature) Modul: Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft BA (Bachelor's degree subject: Spanish Language and Literature) Modul: Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft BA (Bachelor's degree subject: Italian Language and Literature) Modul: Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft BA (Bachelor's degree subject: Nordic Philology (Start of studies before 01.08.2022)) Modul: Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft BA (Bachelor's degree subject: Nordic Philology) Modul: Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: Slavic Studies) Modul: Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: English) Modul: Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: German Language and Literature) Modul: Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: French Language and Literature) Modul: Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: Spanish Language and Literature) Modul: Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: Italian Language and Literature) Modul: Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft MA (Master's degree subject: Latin Philology) Modul: Interphilologie: Sprachwissenschaft MA (Master's Studies - Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences) Modul: Sprache als Prozess (Master's degree program: Language and Communication) Modul: Sprache als System (Master's degree program: Language and Communication) Modul: Sprache und Gesellschaft (Master's degree program: Language and Communication) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | Students will write a research report introducing an empirical research question, answering it with the appropriate statistical test in R and visualizing the result in a basic graph (produced in R). Students can choose to deliver this assignment either as a written research report or in the format of a power point presentation. |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Departement Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften |