Page 34 - PPW (Paper Proposal Writing)

Five Elements of Introduction

Part 2: Research Questions and Research Goals

Read the following example of research questions and research goals of a paper proposal.

Identify which part belongs to research questions and research goals.

This study will explore the instrumental language orientation and language attitudes towards English

and Indonesian of Indonesian students (n= 256) learning English as a foreign language in five big
universities in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Yogyakarta will be chosen as the setting of the research because
of its popularity as a ‘student city’ in Indonesia. It has more than 100 universities and colleges,

accommodating students from all over Indonesia and abroad. Thus, this study will be conducted to
examine: 1) whether there is any relationship between instrumental language orientation and
language attitudes towards English and the Indonesian language of Indonesian learners in Yogyakarta,
and 2) whether there is any difference between male and female students in instrumental English

language orientation. Particularly, this study will aim to answer the following research questions:
1. Is there any relationship between instrumental language orientation and language attitudes

towards English and the Indonesian language of Indonesian EFL learners in Yogyakarta?
2. Is there any difference between male and female students in instrumental English language

orientation?
Adapted from: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1225832.pdf

Research questions:
_____________________________________________________________

Research goals:
_________________________________________________________________

Read the following explanation of writing good research questions and research goals of
your paper proposal.

The followings are steps to write a good research question for your paper.

1. Decide the general topic of your research that you are interested in.

2. Do preliminary research on the general topic to find out what research has already been

done and what literature already exists. How much research has been done on the
particular topic chosen? What types of studies? Is there a unique area that yet to be

investigated or is there a particular question that may be worth replicating? The

following video may be helpful in learning how to choose appropriate keywords and
search online databases: https://youtu.be/233DzkmimV4?t=4s

3. Then begin to narrow the topic by asking open-ended "how" and "why" questions.

Create a list of potential questions of factors you might consider in your research and

choose one that interests you and explore it.

26 Paper Proposal Writing