Considered Questions

1. What do you feel passionate about?

2. What do you feel curious about?
3. What new approaches to learning or teaching are you interested in trying?
4. What will make you a more effective teacher?
5. What gaps are there between your current teaching situation and what you would like to see
happening?
6. What needs of your students are not being met?
7. Why are some of your students not achieving in the same way as others?
8. Why are your students behaving the way they do?
9. What do you want your students to know, understand, or do better than they currently do?
10. What language skills would you like your students to improve?

Orienting Decision
1. What are the general aims of the research?
2. Who is the likely audience for the research?
3. What are the constraints on the research?
4. What is the time frame for the research?
5. What ethical issues need to be dealt with in undertaking the research?
6. What resources are required for the research?

Orientation Based
1. means oriented: We know that we are trying to teach people to write English on this course.
How can we improve the ways in which we do so?
2. ends oriented: We know that these students want to become librarians. How sure are we
about the importance of teaching them to write in English?
3. theory oriented: As we investigate our teaching of writing, how can we articulate our
increased understanding of what is happening here? How can we connect with other written
records in order to theorize our practice and perhaps, contribute to the theory that informs
us?
4. institution oriented: To what extent is my writing course, through its goals, its topics, and my
practice, contributing to an integrated educational program through which the institution
mediates between its students and its social context?
5. society oriented: To what extent is my writing course, through its goals, its topics, and my
practice, promoting values that I believe in (e.g. contributing to a healthy dialogic
relationship among students, teachers, institution and society at large)?
6. teacher oriented: Where is my own personal and professional development in this? What is
the contribution to collegiality and, thereby, the kind of society I want to live in?

The following are five types of gaps that you can look for:
1. Knowledge-based. This is the most common type of gap. It occurs when we dont know
about a phenomenon or dont know enough about it.
2. Relationship-based. This type of gap occurs when we know about certain issues or variables
reasonably well, but we are unsure of their relationships to one another.
3. Theory-based. In this type of gap, a theory or an aspect of a theory has not been investigated
thoroughly, or the theory has not been tested in a particular context or with a particular
group of individuals.
4. Methodological. In this type of gap, previous researchers have not applied a particular
research design or research methodology in their investigations of a particular phenomenon.
In this case, you would need to make clear the advantages of the design or methodology.
5. Analytical. The phenomenon hasnt been investigated using a particular analytical approach.
In this case, you would need to explain the advantages of the analytical approach. While a
 new analytical approach is often some sort of advanced statistical technique, it can also
mean the opposite. For instance, in an area where previous researchers have predominantly
used quantitative approaches, conducting a qualitative study will provide new forms of data
and new ways to analyse that data.

Construct Question
1. What is the tentative title? What do you call what you want to do? What is its name?
2. Why do you want to do it? What will you know or be able to do or say when you are
through? (At this stage, an involved theoretical justification is unnecessary.)
3. To accomplish what you want to do, what steps will you have to take? Can you put the steps
in sequential order? What facilities will you need? Why?
4. What kinds of help do you think you will need to do what you want to do? When? How
might you get that help?
5. Will the project involve people other than yourself? How? To do what? For how long? Will
you need any special permissions?
6. What actually goes on if you start to do what you propose? How would it start? What would
a typical day be like at the beginning? When you are partway through? At the end?
7. How do you think you could show whether you accomplish what you set out to do? How
could you prove it to someone else?

Hot to Generate Research Question

1. What would I like to know about this topic?
2. What aspects of the current literature are unconvincing to me?
3. What aspects of the current literature are most interesting to me?
4. What do theoreticians want to know about this topic?
5. What do practitioners want to know about this topic?
6. How can I extend my knowledge of this topic?
7. What do I not yet know about this topic?
8. What are some controversial issues related to this topic?

Hot to Generate Research Question

Definition
How is X defined? How might I elaborate on this definition? What is missing in this definition?
How might I define X in relation to Y? How might I define X in different contexts?
Example from the literature: What is a question? (Graesser and Person, 1994)
Classification
What class does X belong to? Does it not belong to that class in any sense? What other things are in
or not in that class?
Example from the literature: Should perfectionism be a characteristic of gifted individuals?
(Mendaglio, 2007)
Compare and contrast
How is X similar to Y? How is X different from Y? Is X more similar to Y or Z?
Example from the literature: Do gender differences account for differences in these assessments?
(Ruismki and Tereska, 2008)
Cause and effect
What causes X? What does X cause? Is X a more important cause of Y than Z? Is X a direct or
indirect cause of Y?
Example from the literature: Does economic development help to shorten the length of rivalry
(between countries)? (Prins and Daxecker, 2007)
Relationship
What is the relationship between X and Y?
Example from the literature: Might relationships between liberal institutions and rivalry
termination be non-linear? (Prins and Daxecker, 2007)
Time
How does X change over time? Is X different at different points in time?
Example from the literature: Where longitudinal data are available, how do average student
understandings change over two-, four-, or six-year periods? (Watson et al., 2006)
Stability
How stable is X across factors such as gender, culture, age and socio-economic status? Does the
degree of stability vary across different factors, i.e. is X more stable in one context than another?
Example from the literature: Do the variables differ in terms of the amount of change from the
beginning to the end of the course? (Gardner et al., 2004)

Write Question
Question type Sample questions Comment
1. Does the What improves motivation in my The first question is too broad and
question have the class? there will be too many learning and
right scope? teaching factors to point to any
particular reasons for improvement.

What kind of speaking activities The second question allows for a

will motivate my students? focus on a particular skill area.

2. Is the question Can group work be extended in The first question invites a yes/no
closed or open my classroom? response.
ended?
How can group work be The second question allows for a
extended in my classroom? range of possibilities to be
identified.

3. Is the question How will using electronic The first question already assumes
biased? dictionaries lead to higher test that the dictionaries will make an
scores in my students writing? improvement.

How will using electronic
dictionaries influence my
students writing?
The second does not assume there
will be an improvement. Finding
that something doesnt work may
be as important as finding that it
does.

4. Does the How will observation of my Observation alone is unlikely to

question allow for a students carrying out listening result in comprehensive findings
logical connection tasks increase my understanding about how students develop their
between the action of how best to develop their listening skills.
and the outcome? listening skills?

5. Does the What is task-based language The first question is a very general
question lend itself learning (TBLL)? one that should be answered by
to data collection? reading the literature on TBLL.

What kinds of reading tasks The second allows you to try out
work the most effectively in my different kinds of tasks for teaching
 classroom?
6. Does the How can I develop students
question relate to reading skills by using a
current research? phonicsonly
approach?
7. Is the question How can I stop beginner
ethical? lowachieving Chinese students
from using their first language
(L1) in my class?
8. Is the question What kinds of listening tasks
stated clearly and based on contemporary theories
concisely? of communicative language
teaching used in a seventh grade
classroom at Au Bord de la Mer
Secondary High School in the
Region of Normandy, France,
can best be applied to increase
the listening skills of EFL
students in that class?
What kinds of listening tasks
will assist my EFL seventh
grade students to develop their
listening skills?
a specific skill and collect data on
what happens.
Although teaching phonics is a part
of developing reading skills,
current research indicates that
reading development requires
attention to a variety of other
complementary skills and
strategies.
This question assumes first that
beginner Chinese students are not
able to achieve well, and second
that using L1 is a negative aspect of
early language learning an
assumption that is not supported by
current research.
The first question is full of
redundant information and is very
wordy. Some of the information
relates to the context and to current
widely used teaching approaches
and should be placed in a report of
the research.
The second question indicates
specifically what kinds of tasks will
be investigated and what the aim of
the research is.