The Research Proposal

Dr. Codruta Gosa

codrutagosa@yahoo.co.uk

The format

Abstract (optional)
1. Topic (the What factor)
2. Rationale (the Why factor)
3. Methodology (the How
factor)
4. Working Plan (the When
factor)
5. Ethical Issues

The abstract
A very short summary (usually no more
than 50 words) describing what you
intend to do (pay particular attention to
including the key concepts defining your
research).
Example:
The proposed case study aims to
investigate the washback effects of the
English component of the Bacalaureat,
as put forward by students in their
diaries. The analysis will draw on the
Washback Hypotheses and on
Grounded Theory.

1. The topic

An expansion of the abstract,

elaborating briefly on the key
words referring to the
topic/overarching research
questions of your research

2. Rationale

Why you consider your research

is worth doing and its place in
the currently existing
international and local
context(s).

3. Metodology
What approach(es),
paradigm(s), methodology(ies)
you are going to employ
e.g. the birds eye view or/and
the worms eye view (i.e.
qualitative or/and quantitative
paradigms).

What methods of data collection and

data analysis will you use.
e.g.

questionnaires, structured interviews,

experiments, structured observations,
text/document analyses
Unstructured interviews, focus-groups,
diary studies, ethnographic
observations, text/document analyses

4. Working Plan

The stages of your research (i.e.

the reading around the topic
process, your data collection
process, the analysis process,
the writing up process).
The timeline (the periods of time
when you will deal with the
stages mentioned above).

5. Ethical issues

The ethical issues you expect to

have to deal with and what you
intend to do about it.

Topic
The research I propose to do for my paper is
a case study which will be conducted in an
upper secondary school. The focus will be
on the writing skills in English that
secondary school students are expected to
have at a lower to intermediate level. The
study will deal with the students
performances in, as well as their attitudes to
writing skills tests. The study will consist in
an experiment on a 9th grade class. The
experiment will rely on various instruments
and analytical tools drawing on both
qualitative and quantitative research
paradigms.

Rationale
Testing has major impact on the students and their
teachers lives. Judgments on the students future
studies as well as their careers are made by almost
exclusively taking into account the students scores in
various tests. Foreign languages (particularly the English
language) competencies and testing them have an
increasing role in a students life in the context of
Romanias integration into the European Union and the
increased study and job mobility it entails. Unfortunately,
in Romania there has been little interest in the theory and
practice of language testing. More often than not, for a
long time, subjectivity has been the only approach in the
design and marking of classroom tests (and not only).
Only recently there seems to be a growing interest
(though timidly manifested) in this very important area.
This study, modest as it may be, seeks to join this trend.
The ultimate purpose of this study is to make the
students understand in depth what writing skills involve
at this level and hopefully to lead to an improvement of
competencies in and attitudes towards writing skills.

Rationale (cont.)
Thus, from my own observation and talks with
fellow English and language teachers, I noticed
that the Romanian students in general are very
reticent when asked to study for and produce
written work. They seem to find writing skills
difficult to achieve and manifest a negative
attitude towards them. Consequently, with my
experiment, not only do I set out to improve and
reliably assess my student-respondents writing
skills but also to promote a positive attitude
towards writing skills and encourage further
development.

Methodology
Due to its nature, my case study will
be mainly of a qualitative nature,
seeking to explore and define
problems connected to student
perceptions of writing skills and
eventually try to find solutions to
remedy these problems. However
quantitative data analyses will also
be employed when dealing with test
results and error analysis

Methodology (cont.)
The case study will be based on the following
instruments of data collection:

An initial focus group (for eliciting students

opinions and attitudes toward the testing of
writing skills) which will be recorded,
transcribed and analysed qualitatively
Design, administration, marking and analysis
of various tests of writing skills, plus
extensive feedback given to the students, for
one semester (taking into account good
practice in language testing according to the
theory)
Monitoring progress through error analysis
Correlation of students marks
A final focus group with the same students
(to check changing of opinions and attitudes
towards writing skills and tests of writing
skills at the end of the experiment)

Working Plan
The following stages and timelines will be
observed in my study:
Searching for and reading the relevant
literature on my topic: March July 2010
Planning and organizing my research
stages: - August 2010
Data collection and on-going analysis of
the data:- September 2010 February
2011
Final analysis, organization of findings,
producing first draft: March April 2011
Writing up and revising the paper: April
June 2011
Submitting the final version of the paper:

Ethical issues
One of the major ethical issue this research
might pose is related to consent. The
respondents population might become afflicted
with the captive audience syndrome. As
McDonough and McDonough (1997: 127)
observe, if respondents are somehow forced
into accepting to take part in a research process
(due to the unequal power relations within the
classroom environment, for example), the data
is likely to become 'unhelpful because it will
probably be skewed merely towards expressing
their unwillingness to keep a diary at all'
Consequently, the voluntary-based full and
informed consent will be vital for my
investigation. Additionally, I will do the best that
I can to preserve the school's and the teachers'
anonymity as some aspects of this study could
prove damaging both to the teachers and the
school.

Your task:

Think of your own MA

dissertation project and design a
proposal according to the format
discussed so far.