What would be a good research problem in the field of English?

Question

What about English would be a good topic to write a research paper about? I thought of the topic team teaching vs. individual teaching but I'm open for more ideas. =) Thanks!

Answer 1

I would definitely go with Differentiated Instruction. Carol Tomlinson has books about this and a website. (see below) You can find plenty more materials about this online.

Basically, it talks about learning styles and how teachers need to address the differences among students with learning and assessment. (Are you a visual or a verbal learner?) Here is a quiz to find out your own style:
http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html

If you don't think that would be good for you, how about the impact of the 6 + 1 Traits of Writing helps with student success in writing.
http://www.nwrel.org/assessment/department.php?d=1
We have instituted this 4 - 8th grade with great success in my district. Either topic has plenty out there on the web for references.

I am on a team, so I can see how that would be of interest, too. I just think there is more data with the topics listed above if you are focusing on English specifically.

Best of luck with your research! I hope this helps!

Answer 2

Geeze. When I first saw the question, I thought wow-- some of the vowel shifts that happened in the past were amazing, or spelling, or the English language as related to Celtic or Indo-European, or even Platt Deutsche.

Group vs individual teaching seems more like an Educational studies issue, but if that's what you want, you could apply it to math, reading, physics, or anything else, and don't center just on language studies.

Good luck, because either way, you have a lot with which to work.

Answer 3

The Problem of Medium of Instruction in the Developing Countries
You can chose the above mentioned topic taking the developing countries as your population and two or any number of countries a sample of your study. Most of the developing countries have English as medium of instruction. Due to the second language as medium of instruction, they are facing many problems.

Answer 4

Well this is the Teaching forum so you're perfectly alright..
I'd go with reading.. Find out how good they read, how much they read and how that affects their progress in English class.. In general kids are reading a lot less, thanks to the internet and computer games.. Their written work and basic command of the language is appalling..