This document provides guidance on developing effective research questions. It discusses that research questions should lead the overall research process and determine the type of research, data collection methods, and data analysis. Good research questions are interesting, researchable, and significant. They should be clearly worded as an interrogative and not too general. The document also covers where research questions can come from, types of questions, how many to include, and implications for data collection and analysis. Research questions should be intellectually worthwhile and determine the direction of the study.

1. Topic:
DESIGNING RESEARCH QUESTION
Teacher:
Dr. ADNAN TAHIR
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EMERSON University Multan

2. Research Design
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Research
Question
Answer/
Solution
DATA
Data
Collection
Methods
Data
Analysis
Methods

3. A. Why do we need research question?
• Point of Departure….Leads the Overall Research Process
• What should be my Research Design?
• Data? Type of the Research? Data Collection Method? Data Analysis? Population?
What Contribution to Knowledge?
• Research questions are characteristic of qualitative research, and are likely to be both
broader and more exploratory than hypotheses.
• Are they open enough to allow for the degree of exploratory enquiry I require?
• Will they allow me to generate further questions at a later stage, in the light of my developing
data analysis, should I wish?’
• for example:
‘What are the borrowing practices of Pakistani Secondary School girls and boys in
terms of fiction and non-fiction?’
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4. B. Where do research questions come from?
• The Literature
– A suggestion for an unanswered research question.
– To replicate someone else’s work.
– Identify a ‘niche’ in the research literature.
• The pre-existing topic
– you may have identified an interesting linguistic phenomenon or
development (e.g. use of the phrase what’s with . . . to enquire
about something unusual; blogs would be another relatively recent
example, illustrating the affordances of a particular medium and a
new form of communication).
• From your own findings
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5. C. What makes a good question?
• Is it interesting?
• Is it researchable?
• Is it significant?
• Is it manageable?

6. D.What A Question Should Not Be?
• A research question however is a question, and should be worded as an interrogative
(see below). It is not a topic, although it grows out of a topic.
• Topic
1. The beliefs of Pakistani primary school teachers about
foreign language teaching and acquisition’
• Puzzle
2. Why is it that foreign language teachers tend to see girls as
almost automatically better language learners than boys?’
• Too general, vague or multidimensional
3. How the foreign language teachers think about teaching
process and what is their reaction toward the language
teaching reforms?
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7. • Is Question Feasible?
– How the gender is being represented from the perspective of Feminist
Post-Structuralist Discourse Analysis in Students’ SMS at university level?
• Contribution to Knowledge?
– What is the importance of teacher professional development program in
the school?
• Judgmental Question?
– How does ‘X’ Newspaper favor the political actions of ‘Y’ Government?
The research questions should be translated in careful formal expression,
including in terms of accurate, appropriate and productive interrogative
wording.
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D.What A Question Should Not Be?

8. E.Types of research questions
• Is/Are? Do/Does? What? Where? When? Why? Who? How?
What extent? What relationship? What differences?
– Descriptive; Relational; Explanatory; Evaluative; Causal; Comparative;
Procedural; Investigatory;
• Topic:
• Beliefs of Pakistani beginning English school teachers about foreign
language teaching and Acquisition to Year 6 primary school children
1. Do beginning English schools teachers agree with the teaching of
English to Year 6 primary school children? (Quantitative Data)
2. What reasons do beginning English schools teachers give for
including the teaching of English to Year 6 children in the
curriculum? (Qualitative/ Mixed Data)
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9. E.Types of research questions
3. What reasons do beginning English schools teachers
give against the teaching of English to Year 6 primary
school children? (Qualitative/ Mixed Data)
4. Which strategies can be best utilized for teaching
English to Year 6 children? (Problem solving)
5. What is the range and diversity of beliefs of beginning
English schools teachers in relation to the teaching of
English to Year 6 children? (Analytical)
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10. E.Types of research questions
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11. • Primary/secondary
• Main/contributory (Does X happen? If Yes? If No?)
• Overarching/subordinate
– Overarching research question:
– What are some differences in the way [a given political event]
is reported in newspaper X and newspaper Y?
• Subordinate research question 1:
• How are the ‘social actors’ in each newspaper report
nominalized?
• Subordinate research question 2:
• Which report uses the greatest proportion of agentless
passive verb constructions?
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E.Types of research questions

12. • Empirical/methodological/theoretical
– Can Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) be usefully applied
to the talk of preschool children?
– What is a theoretical framework within which Hong
Kong children’s writing [in English] can be analyzed and
described?
• Research-generated/participant-generated
– Who decides what the question will be?
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E.Types of research questions

13. F.How many research questions?
 Ask only as many research questions as can
satisfactorily be addressed.
 A set of research questions should not be
too general, vague or multidimensional.
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14. G. Implications of research question
For
data,
data collection and
data analysis
Question should be Clearly formulated, intellectually worthwhile, and
researchable.
• How are authentic materials more effective in bringing about
learning than materials written specifically for the language
classroom?
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15. 15
G. Implications of research question
How are authentic materials more effective in bringing about
learning than materials written specifically for the language
classroom?

16. THANKS
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