An Analysis of Research Backgrounds of EFL Students' Research Proposal

This research analyzed research backgrounds, namely research territory (claim centrality, problems, a review literature) and research niche (gaps) of EFL students' research proposals. The research design was qualitative research employing text analysis. The researchers used a random sampling technique to select two research proposals' backgrounds. Moreover, the contents of the research proposals' backgrounds analyzed using the CARS model ADDIN CSL_CITATION {&quot;citationItems&quot;:[{&quot;id&quot;:&quot;ITEM-1&quot;,&quot;itemData&quot;:{&quot;DOI&quot;:&quot;10.1016/0889-4906(95)90003-9&quot;,&quot;ISSN&quot;:&quot;08894906&quot;,&quot;abstract&quot;:&quot;This textbook is designed to help graduate students with their academic writing. It is designed for nonnative speakers of English. It has evolved out of both research and teaching experience. The general approach is rhetorical; that is, it focuses on making a good impression with academic writing. The book is as much concerned with developing academic writers as it is with improving academic texts. The tasks, activities, and discussions are richly varied, ranging from small-scale language points to studying the discourse of a chosen discipline. The book is fast paced, opening with a basic orientation and closing with writing an article for publication. With the help of the accompanying commentary, students and scholars should be able to use this volume profitably on their own. Audience&quot;,&quot;author&quot;:[{&quot;dropping-particle&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;family&quot;:&quot;Swales&quot;,&quot;given&quot;:&quot;John M&quot;,&quot;non-dropping-particle&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;parse-names&quot;:false,&quot;suffix&quot;:&quot;&quot;},{&quot;dropping-particle&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;family&quot;:&quot;Feak&quot;,&quot;given&quot;:&quot;Christine B&quot;,&quot;non-dropping-particle&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;parse-names&quot;:false,&quot;suffix&quot;:&quot;&quot;}],&quot;container-title&quot;:&quot;English for Specific Purposes&quot;,&quot;edition&quot;:&quot;3&quot;,&quot;id&quot;:&quot;ITEM-1&quot;,&quot;issue&quot;:&quot;2&quot;,&quot;issued&quot;:{&quot;date-parts&quot;:[[&quot;2012&quot;]]},&quot;number-of-pages&quot;:&quot;175-179&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Academic writing for graduate students&quot;,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;book&quot;,&quot;volume&quot;:&quot;14&quot;},&quot;uris&quot;:[&quot;http://www.mendeley.com/documents/?uuid=5b9b61ec-7821-4faa-9c10-595cbbc8e5e9&quot;]}],&quot;mendeley&quot;:{&quot;formattedCitation&quot;:&quot;(Swales &amp; Feak, 2012)&quot;,&quot;plainTextFormattedCitation&quot;:&quot;(Swales &amp; Feak, 2012)&quot;,&quot;previouslyFormattedCitation&quot;:&quot;(Swales &amp; Feak, 2012)&quot;},&quot;properties&quot;:{&quot;noteIndex&quot;:0},&quot;schema&quot;:&quot;https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json&quot;} (Swales &amp; Feak, 2012) . The research findings showed that the students tend to find it difficult in addressing the research territory (problems) and establishing a niche (gap). First, the students apparently find it difficult to develop their ideas as a result of the students apparently find it difficult to establish a niche (gaps). Second, the students tend to find it difficult to compose their ideas started from the general views to the specific thoughts. Last, the students lack consistency in using tenses.