College-Level Second Language Courses and Creative Thinking Skills: An Ex Post Facto Study

Abstract

The aim of this quantitative ex post facto research study was to explore whether college learners in the United States who had successfully completed college-level second language course(s) perform better than those who did not complete such a course(s) on the Alternate Uses test in the domains of fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. The sample size consisted of 160 participants, of whom 80 were full- time college learners who successfully completed second language course(s). The MANOVA test suggested that a statistically significant difference existed in the domain of flexibility (F (1,158) = 5.602; p < 0.05; partial η2 = 0.034) but not in the domains of fluency (F (1,158) = 2.515; p > 0.05; partial η2 = 0.016), originality (F (1,158) = 2.444; p > 0.05; partial η2 = 0.015), and elaboration (F (1,158) = 2.822; p > 0.05; partial η2 = 0.018).