Field of Science and Research

Active Vocabulary

to do / to carry on / to carry out / to conduct research

to contribute to / to make a contribution to

to influence/to affect / to have an effect on / upon

to study / to make studies / to investigate / to explore

to put forward an idea

to suggest an idea / a theory / a hypothesis

to advance / to develop/to modify a theory

to predict / to forecast / to foresee

to accumulate knowledge

field of science / research

a new area of research

current branch / field of research

latest/recent achievements / developments / advances

a(an) outstanding / prominent / world-known scientist / researcher

 

Tasks

 

A. Answer the questions:

1. What is your field of science / research?

2. What are the current issues in your field of science / research?

3. Have new areas of research appeared in recent years?

4. What is your particular area of research?

5. What are the latest achievements in your field of science / research?

6. Have many fundamental discoveries been made in your field of science / research?

7. Can you name some outstanding researchers in your field of science? What contribution have they made?

8. Do achievements in your branch of science/research influence everyday life? In what way?

9. What further developments can you predict in your field of science/research?

 

B. Complete the sentences which contain the words from the Active Vocabulary Section. Speak about your field of science/research.

1. I do research in the field of....

2. It is the science / a comparatively new branch of science that studies...

3. The field of science / research that I'm concerned with gathers knowledge about...

4. Major developments include advances in....

5. Remarkable advances have been made in....

6. The branches of science contributing a lot to progress in my field of research are....

7. My current field of science / research is....

8. It's difficult / not difficult to foresee / forecast / predict....

C. Work in pairs.

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.

 

2. Research Problem

Active Vocabulary

to be due to

to arise from

to increase considerably

to be the subject of special / particular interest

to be studied comprehensively / thoroughly / extensively

to be only outlined

to be mentioned in passing

to be concerned with / to be engaged in the problem of

to deal with / to consider the problem of

to be interested in

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

C. Work in pairs.

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.

3. Historical Background of Research Problem

Active Vocabulary

at that time / in that period / as early as 19...

by that time

since that time

in recent years / recently / lately

over the last / past few years

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

in the late 1970s / from 1970 to 1980

the first studies / investigations on the problem

to be the first / to pioneer / to initiate

to date back to / to go back to

to pay attention to

to observe / to consider

to find / to discover

to show / to demonstrate

to assume / to suppose / to make an assumption

to explain / to account for

to confirm / to support

to give rise to

to believe / to think / to expect

to remain unsolved

to be poorly / well understood

to require further effort / study

to point out the shortcomings / weak points / drawbacks

to stimulate interest in

to add greatly to our knowledge of

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?

 

B. Complete the sentences with the words from the Active Vocabulary Section. Speak about the historical background of your research problem.

1. In recent years... has greatly increased.

2. Over the past few years the interest in the problem has been due to the fact that...

3. During the last 20 years interest in... has considerably....

4. X. was the first to... the problem of....

5. The first studies/observations/experiments....

6. At present, research is concentrated on....

7. Many aspects of the problem still remain....

8. It is difficult to point out... and... of the problem.

 

C. Work in pairs.

Ask for and give information on the historical background of the research problems under study.

 

D. Act out the situation.

Two students are talking about their fields of research, their research problems. They share information about new approaches, contributions, developments in these areas, and also talk about the literature available on the problem.

 

4. Current Research. Purpose and Methods

Active Vocabulary

purpose / aim / objective / goal / target

a method / a technique / a procedure

detection / identification / observation

measurement / calculation / computation / approximation

consideration / generalization / deduction / assumption

modeling / simulation

advantages / merits

disadvantages / shortcomings / limitations

accurate / precise

accuracy / precision

reliable / valid / conventional / effective / useful / valuable

data / results / method

to make an experiment / analysis

to reveal / to find / to confirm / to prove evidence

to study / to examine

to collect data

to refine the results

to create

to improve

to work out / to develop / to design

to verify / to check

to approve / to disprove an assumption

to use / to employ / to apply

to allow / to permit / to provide

to have much promise / to be promising

to come into use

 

Tasks

 

A. Answer the questions:

1. What is the subject of your current research?

2. What is the propose of your research?

3. What method do you employ? Why?

4. What are the advantages of the method you use over other methods and techniques?

5. Is this method only now coming into use? Is it new?

6. What does the method consist in? What operations does it include?

7. Do you find the method reliable/precise? Why?

8. How long has your current research been under way?

9. How much time will it take you to complete your research successfully?