C. Ask for and give information on your field of science and research.

D. Act out the situation.

Two students are discussing the progress made in their fields of science and its influence on life today.

II. Research Problem

Active Vocabulary

1. to be due to

2. to arise from

3. to increase considerably

4. to be the subject of special/particular interest

5. to be studied comprehensively/thoroughly/extensively

6. to be only outlined

7. to be mentioned in passing

8. to be concerned with/to be engaged in the problem of to deal with/to consider the problem of

9. to be interested in

10. to be of great/little/no interest/importance/significance/value/use to take up the problem to work on the problem

11. to follow/to stick to the theory/hypothesis/concept to postulate

12. to 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 ...

Tasks

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 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 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 Section. Speak about your research problem.

At present/now/currently I am studying the problem of...

The problem I am studying is concerned with ....

There is a lot of/little/no literature on the problem of....

The literature available on the problem only outlines/mentions in passing/ thoroughly/extensively/describes such aspects as ....

We have taken up the problem of... to....

In solving our problem we follow the hypothesis that....

Work in pairs.

C. 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 acquainted and talk about their research fields and research problems.

III. Historical Background of Research Problem

Active Vocabulary

1. at that time/in that period/as early as 19 ... by that time/since that time

2. in recent years/recently/lately

3. over the last/past few years

4. in the 1970s/throughout the 70s/in the early 1970s/

5. in the late 1970s/from 1970 to 1980

6. the first studies/investigations on the problem

7. to be the first/to pioneer/to initiate

8. to date back to/to go back to

9. to pay attention to

10. to observe/to consider

11. to find/to discover

12. to show/to demonstrate

13. to assume/to suppose/to make an assumption

14. to explain/to account for

15. to confirm/to support

16. to give rise to

17. to believe/to think/to expect

18. to remain unsolved

19. to be poorly/well understood

20. to require farther effort/study

21. to point out the shortcomings/weak points/drawbacks

22. to stimulate interest in

23. to add greatly to our knowledge of

24. to lay the foundation for

Tasks

A. Answer the questions:

1) Has your research problem attracted 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 on the problem made? 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 remain poorly understood/unsolved?

11) Could you point out the gaps or shortcomings in the earlier studies of the problem?