1. At present / now / currently I am studying the problem of...
2. The problem I am studying is concerned with....
3. There is a lot of/little / no literature on the problem of....
4. The literature available on the problem only outlines/mentions in passing/ thoroughly/extensively/describes such aspects as....
5. We have taken up the problem of... to....
6. In solving our problem we follow the hypothesis that....
C. Work in pairs.
Ask for and give information on your research problem.
D. Act out the situation.
Two students are taking part in an international conference. There they get acquainted and talk about their research fields and research problems.
3. Historical Background of Research Problem
Active Vocabulary
at that time / in that period / as early as 19...
by that time
since that time
in recent years / recently / lately
over the last / past few years
in the 1970s / throughout the 70s / in the early 1970s /
in the late 1970s / from 1970 to 1980
the first studies / investigations on the problem
to be the first / to pioneer / to initiate
to date back to / to go back to
to pay attention to
to observe / to consider
to find / to discover
to show / to demonstrate
to assume / to suppose / to make an assumption
to explain / to account for
to confirm / to support
to give rise to
to believe / to think / to expect
to remain unsolved
to be poorly / well understood
to require further effort / study
to point out the shortcomings / weak points / drawbacks
to stimulate interest in
to add greatly to our knowledge of
to lay the foundation for
Tasks
A. Answer the questions:
1. Has your research problem attracted much attention in recent years? Has it been widely studied?
2. What aspects of the problem have been considered over the last few years?
3. Who was the first to recognize / point out the problem?
4. What aspects of the problem did researchers concentrate on at that time?
5. When were the first studies on the problem made? In what years?
6. What time / years do the first studies / observations/investigations date back to?
7. When was the problem first studied intensively?
8. When did the interest in this problem increase?
9. Is the problem well understood at present?
10. What aspects of the problem still remain poorly understood / unsolved?
11. Could you point out the gaps or shortcomings in the earlier studies of the problem?
B. Complete the sentences with the words from the Active Vocabulary Section. Speak about the historical background of your research problem.
1. In recent years... has greatly increased.
2. Over the past few years the interest in the problem has been due to the fact that...
3. During the last 20 years interest in... has considerably....
4. X. was the first to... the problem of....
5. The first studies/observations/experiments....
6. At present, research is concentrated on....
7. Many aspects of the problem still remain....
8. It is difficult to point out... and... of the problem.
C. Work in pairs.
Ask for and give information on the historical background of the research problems under study.
D. Act out the situation.
Two students are talking about their fields of research, their research problems. They share information about new approaches, contributions, developments in these areas, and also talk about the literature available on the problem.
4. Current Research. Purpose and Methods
Active Vocabulary
purpose / aim / objective / goal / target
a method / a technique / a procedure
detection / identification / observation
measurement / calculation / computation / approximation
consideration / generalization / deduction / assumption
modeling / simulation
advantages / merits
disadvantages / shortcomings / limitations
accurate / precise
accuracy / precision
reliable / valid / conventional / effective / useful / valuable
data / results / method
to make an experiment / analysis
to reveal / to find / to confirm / to prove evidence
to study / to examine
to collect data
to refine the results
to create
to improve
to work out / to develop / to design
to verify / to check
to approve / to disprove an assumption
to use / to employ / to apply
to allow / to permit / to provide
to have much promise / to be promising
to come into use
Tasks
A. Answer the questions:
1. What is the subject of your current research?
2. What is the propose of your research?
3. What method do you employ? Why?
4. What are the advantages of the method you use over other methods and techniques?
5. Is this method only now coming into use? Is it new?
6. What does the method consist in? What operations does it include?
7. Do you find the method reliable/precise? Why?
8. How long has your current research been under way?
9. How much time will it take you to complete your research successfully?
