LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY

RESEARCH PROPOSAL PLAN

RESEARCH PROPOSAL PLAN:

A. INTRODUCTION
1. Topic: description, definition + place it in the literature = the
literature review (what other people say!)
N.B.: Do NOT FORGET to show WHERE you get the
ideas/information from: REFERENCES IN THE TEXT:
e.g.: When you quote put: before or after the quotation: (FAMILY
NAME of writer, Year of publication of book/article and page where the
quotation comes from ), e.g.:
(...) some researchers (...) distinguish between acquisition and learning.
The former refers to the subconscious process of picking up a language
through exposure and the latter to the conscious process of studying it
(Ellis, 1994: 14) (my emphasis/emphasis added/ emphasis in the
original).

RESEARCH PROPOSAL PLAN:

When you paraphrase (say in your own words what a specialist said in
his/her book) you always put references in your text. Like this:
However, if we interpret language teaching in the very broadest sense,
to include all the planning and decision-making which takes place
outside the classroom, then there may be an element of applied
linguistics in all language teaching (Corder, 1973:10).

RESEARCH PROPOSAL PLAN:

2. Hypothesis + research Questions (what they are +
description)

e.g. IInd year AML undergraduates are

dissatisfied with the teaching they are exposed
to.= hypothesis
RQs: -Why are undergraduates dissatisfied?
-Is dissatisfaction due to teachers?

RESEARCH PROPOSAL PLAN:

B. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY (describe and explain how and
why you did things in your research/study)
1. METHOD: experiment, survey, participant observation, using
available data, etc.
2. INSTRUMENT
3. INFORMANTS/ subjects/respondents = describe + deal with ethics
(e.g., not the real names, ensuring confidentiality, how much you tell
them)
4. DATA
Description
Analysis (reading of the data/identification of themes/ patterns of
similarity or dissimilarity + categorising the data + coding of data)

RESEARCH PROPOSAL PLAN:

C. CONCLUSIONS:
-1. results of analysis (what did you find in
the analysis?)
-2. interpretation of results = conclusions =
YOUR ANSWERS TO YOUR
RESEARCH QUESTIONS

RESEARCH PROPOSAL PLAN:

D. REFRENCES (listed alphabetically), e.g.:

Corder, P. (1973). An Introduction to Applied
Linguistics. London: Penguin Books
Ellis, R. (1994). The Study of Second Language
Acquisition. Oxford: OUP

Word-processing

REQUIREMENTS:
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font size: 12
line spacing: 1,5
blocked paragraphs + full justification (no indentation, with a
blank line between them)
Long quotations (more than two lines):
font size: 10
line spacing: single
indent them (two tabs)