Two students are discussing the progress мейд in their fields of science and its influence on life today.
2. Research Problem
to be due to
to arise from
to increase considerably
to be the subject of special / particular interest
to be studied comprehensively / thoroughly / extensively
to be only outlined
to be mentioned in passing
to be concerned with D. Act out the situation. / to be engaged in the problem of
to deal with / to consider the problem of
to be interested in
to be of great/little / no interest/importance / significance / value / use to take up the problem to work on the problem
to follow / to stick to the theory / hypothesis / concept to postulate
to D. Act out the situation. differ / to be different from a lot of / little / no literature is available on the problem the reason for the interest in the problem is ...
A. Answer the questions:
1. What is your research problem?
2. What is of special interest in the problem of your research?
3. What is the subject of your D. Act out the situation. research?
4. Why has the interest in this problem increased considerably in recent years?
5. Do you follow / stick to any theory / hypothesis / concept? What is it?
6. What concept is your research based on?
7. How does your research differ from other studies of the same problem?
8. Is there much literature available on D. Act out the situation. your research problem?
9. Is your research problem described comprehensively / thoroughly / extensively in literature?
10. Is the problem only outlined or mentioned in passing?
11. What are the main aspects of the problem that have been considered?
B. Complete the sentences which contain the words from the Active Vocabulary D. Act out the situation. Section. Speak about your research problem.
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 D. Act out the situation./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 D. Act out the situation. acquainted and talk about their research fields and research problems.
3. Historical Background of Research Problem
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 D. Act out the situation. 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 D. Act out the situation. 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
A. Answer the questions:
1. Has your research problem attracted D. Act out the situation. 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 D. Act out the situation. on the problem мейд? 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 D. Act out the situation. 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 D. Act out the situation. 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 D. Act out the situation. 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.