CONTEXTUALIZATION OF RESEARCH Helda Alicia Hidalgo Dávila Linguistics and Languages Department Faculty of Human Sciences University of Nariño

WRITING THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL THE PROBLEM PROBLEM The word problem has different meanings in English according to the part of language it refers to or the context in which it is used. 1- It can be a question to be considered, solved, or answered: For example, in the case of math problems that always pose a question; You save $3 on Monday. Each day after that you save twice as much as you saved the day before. If this pattern continues, how much would you save on Friday? To solve this problem you need to understand it and use some strategies and stages to solve the problem. How would you proceed to solve the problem?

2. Some real life situations such as: the case of the problem of how to arrange transportation at rush hour in Las Banderas round point in Pasto. To solve this problem, people in charge of trasportation can provide different solutions through different means. What solution would you provide?

3. The word can also refer to a situation, matter, or person that presents perplexity or difficulty. An example can be given when we say that a person was having problems breathing; It can also be applied to refer to a difficult situation such as in the case: Sandra considered the main problem to be the boss of her husband.

4. The word problem can also make reference to a complaint, for example when somenone says I have a problem with his cynicism. 5. The word problem can also represent an adjective and refer to situations in which people refer to a person that is difficult to deal with or control. That student is a problem child. 6. And a final use of the word that represents an Idiom: no problem Used to express confirmation of or compliance with a request.

Research Problem In research, a problem is related to the general definition of problem in situations number 1 and 2 above. In research, the first stage is defining a problem. This problem is taken from real life situations in your own field of study. This problem will take you to look for a possible solution. Once you think about a specific problem in one of the areas of your studies, you have to start thinking about how to write this problem in a very clear way. The problem is presented in the form of a PROBLEM STATEMENT. And, it is around this statement that the whole research process develops.

SOURCES OF RESEARCH PROBLEMS A researcher can find problems in different ways and contexts. First of all, the researcher has to think that the problem can be a situation that confuses him/her. The researcher can look for a problem in the work place, in the study setting, on the street, etc. But if it is a language teaching and learning problem, the researcher need to pay attention to language teaching and learning: Levels Contexts Situations The identification of a problem can be based on: Personal experience: you notice a specific problem in your learning or teaching processes Other person´s experiences: somebody has told you about a problematic situation in his/her learning and teaching experiences Scientific literature: You have read about some fields in language learning and teaching and you consider they have not been covered in research.

Theories: You may notice that it could be a good idea to research one aspect of a theory that has not been tested. Or maybe, you would like to clarify aspects in a theory. Methodology: In language teaching and learning a very rich source of problematic situations is methodology. Maybe you would like to correct a faulty methodology, or maybe identify methods used in history. Conflicting opinions: You may want to reconcile conflicting opinions of a topic related to language teaching and learning.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD RESEARCH PROBLEM Once the problem is identified, the researcher should write the problem in a very clear and concise way. Remember that the problem is the aspect the researcher worries about, makes the researcher think about, makes the researcher want to look for a solution. Write the STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM in the form of a question or a statement. This question or statement should be grammatical and understandable. Write the problem in such a way that the researcher shows an analysis process is implied. 3. WAYS TO FOCUS A RESEARCH PROBLEM Include information about: who, what, where, when and why of the problem in the problem statement so it provides the information needed to be understood. Now you can formulate your research problem.

For example, you can write: 1. How can grammatical explanation be a useful tool for teaching English to adults at the sixth level of high school who attend classes at night schools in Pasto? 2. Can communicative language teaching be an alternative for children who are studying English as a foreign language in the rural area schools at the Southwestern part of Colombia? 3. Why students at undergraduate level are demotivated students of English if they need this language to fulfill their career goals?

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION Once you have formulated the research problem, it is very important to describe your problem. For the description of a problem you should include the following information: Outline the general context of the problem area. Highlight key theories, concepts and ideas current in this area. What appear to be some of the underlying assumptions of this area? Why are these issues identified important? What needs to be solved? Read round the area (subject) to get to know the background and to identify unanswered questions or controversies, and/or to identify the most significant issues for further exploration. http://www.petech.ac.za/robert/resprobl.htm

This section includes an analysis of the problem situation you are going to research. It is important for the researcher to analyze the context in which he/she found the problem and say why he/she considers the situation as a problematic one. Also, establish who can benefit with finding a solution to this problem and make a prospective to possible ways in which you can arrive at a solution to the problem.

PURPOSE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF A RESEARCH STUDY Once the researcher has formulated the problem and has written the description and analysis of it, he/she can start writing a section that is titled justification or significance of the study. In this section the researcher should tell the readers why the study is important and what the ultimate purpose is . Start describing the importance of the topic you have selected. Say how you selected the topic or problem area. Consider the following questions to write this section of the paper. Why is your study important?    To whom is it important?       What are the benefit(s) of developing your study?

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The following section is titled RESEARCH QUESTIONS. This section helps the researcher to focus his/her problem in the research process. The researcher should write 2 kinds of objectives: one general objective and some specific objectives. GENERAL OBJECTIVE: it is the ultimate aim at developing the study. What the researcher expects to achieve by developing the study SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: These objectives are smaller objectives that will help to achieve the general objective. These objectives are established based on the causes of the problem. These objectives should tell what you will do in your study, where you are going to do it and for what purposes you are going to do it.

For example: For the first problem: Why is grammatical explanation a useful tool for teaching English to adults at the sixth level of high school who attend classes at night schools in Pasto? A General Objective can be: To determine why grammatical explanation can be a useful tool for teaching English to adults at the sixth level of high school who attend classes at night schools in Pasto. And two specific objectives can be: To establish the scope of grammatical explanation in English as a Foreign language for adults who are at the sixth level of high school To identify at least 10 ways in which English grammatical explanation can be used during class time at the sixth level in a night high school in Pasto.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS The problem to be solved can be broken down into small questions that can help in the research process. To write these questions the researcher can make use of the objectives he/she wrote in the previous section. These objectives can be converted into questions, so it is possible to obtain a GENERAL QUESTION that is written based on the GENERAL OBJECTIVE and SPECIFIC QUESTIONS that are written based on the SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES. It means that rewording the objectives the researcher comes about with the research questions. These questions help the researcher in the research process since the researcher should provide answers for the questions once the research process is finished.

For example, For the first problem: Why is grammatical explanation a useful tool for teaching English to adults at the sixth level of high school who attend classes at night schools in Pasto? Since the General Objective is: To determine why grammatical explanation can be a useful tool for teaching English to adults at the sixth level of high school who attend classes at night schools in Pasto The General Question should have a correspondence with it, so the General Question could be: How can grammatical explanation be a useful tool for teaching English to adults at the sixth level of high school who attend classes at night schools in Pasto?

Since the two specific objectives are: 1. To establish the scope of grammatical explanation in English as a Foreign language for adults who are at the sixth level of high school 2. To identify at least 10 ways in which English grammatical explanation can be used during class time at the sixth level in a night high school in Pasto. The two corresponding sub-questions could be: 1. What is the scope of grammatical explanation in English as a Foreign language for adults who are at the sixth level of high school? 2. What are 10 ways in which English grammatical explanation can be used during class time at the sixth level in a night school in Pasto?

LIMITATIONS SECTION Once the problem has been identified, describe and analyzed, it is time to think about possible limitations of your research study. Limitations are areas that make it difficult for you to develop the research process. These limitations should be anticipated in order to try to anticipate solutions also. Name the limitations and try to supply some solutions for the limitations of your paper or ways to address the limitations you can find.

For example: For the problem: Why is grammatical explanation a useful tool for teaching English to adults at the sixth level of high school who attend classes at night schools in Pasto? One limitation can be that teachers at the high school that is going to participate in the research do not allow the researchers observe grammar classes. Therefore, a possible solution could be to change the place for observation.

GLOSSARY This is the final section of the first chapter of the proposal. This section is designed along the writing process of the paper because the researcher is going to find the terms that need specific definition in the different sections of the paper. The glossary is a list of terms that have a very specific meaning in each individual paper, therefore, need to be properly defined.

BIBLIOGRAPHY American Psychological Association (APA). (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (Fourth edition). Washington, DC: Author. Creswell, J. W. (1994). Research design: Qualitative & quantitative approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Guba, E. G. (1961, April). Elements of a proposal. Paper presented at the UCEA meeting, Chapel Hill, NC. Fraenkel, J. R. & Wallen, N. E. (1990). How to design and evaluate research in education. New York: McGraw-Hill. Krathwohl, D. R. (1988). How to prepare a research proposal: Guidelines for funding and dissertations in the social and behavioral sciences. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.

Locke, L. F. , Spirduso, W. W. , & Silverman, S. J. (1987) Locke, L. F., Spirduso, W. W., & Silverman, S. J. (1987). Proposals that work: A guide for planning dissertations and grant proposals (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Marshall, C., & Rossman, G. B. (1989). Designing qualitative research: Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Wilkinson, A. M. (1991). The scientist’s handbook for writing papers and dissertations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. http://www.theresearchassistant.com/tutorial/3-1.asp http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/writ-pap.htm http://www.petech.ac.za/robert/reshypoth.htm

ACTIVITY Since you already have selected the topic for research. Write the first chapter of your proposal. Follow this format Title Page Table of Contents CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM Introduction Problem Statement Problem Description Significance of the study Research Objectives Research Questions Limitations