Research Introduction

C.A.R.S (Creating a Research

Space)MODEL (Swales, 2005)
 The model assumes that writers follow a general
organizational pattern in response to two types of
challenges [“competitions”] relating to establishing a
presence within a particular domain of research: 1) the
competition to create a rhetorical space and, 2) the
competition to attract readers into that space. The model
proposes three actions [Swales calls them “moves”],
accompanied by specific steps, that reflect the
development of an effective introduction for a research
paper. These “moves” and steps can be used as a
template for writing the introduction to your own social
sciences research papers.
Move 1: Establishing a Territory [the situation]
This is generally accomplished in two ways: by
demonstrating that a general area of research is
important, critical, interesting, problematic, relevant,
or otherwise worthy of investigation and by
introducing and reviewing key sources of prior
research in that area to show where gaps exist or
where prior research has been inadequate in
addressing the research problem.
The steps taken to achieve this would be:
• Step 1 -- Claiming importance of, and/or [writing action =
describing the research problem and providing evidence to
support why the topic is important to study]
• Step 2 -- Making topic generalizations, and/or [writing action =
providing statements about the current state of knowledge,
consensus, practice or description of phenomena]
• Step 3 -- Reviewing items of previous research [writing action =
synthesize prior research that further supports the need to study
the research problem; this is not a literature review but more a
reflection of key studies that have touched upon but perhaps not
fully addressed the topic]
Perspectives

Continental
(America, Europe, etc.)

Regional
(Asian Countries)
Local
(within the
Phils.)
Example

Communication skills are essential for success in the academic

and professional field for it facilitates successful conveyance
and sharing of ideas especially during written or spoken
discourses. With the advent of globalization, proficiency in oral
communication skills have been called for graduates so that they
can effectively function in the professional and academic
environment (Rahman, 2010).Furthermore, professionals believe
that communication skills (e.g. interpersonal, writing and
speaking) are invaluable for career success (Lin, Krishnan &
Grace, 2013).
Worldwide, the Philippines just made it to the 20th spot among countries with the
best non-native English speakers or communicators in terms of English
Proficiency Index (EPI) with 60.4 (Education First, 2020). This may sound
optimistic as a whole, however looking into the 2016 proficiency index of the
country which is 13th the world over (Education First, 2017), this entails that the
Filipinos’ English proficiency has sharply declined. As a matter of fact, Domingo
(2018) has reported that the Philippines’ college seniors’ English proficiency is
only equivalent with Thailand’s and Vietnam’s high school students’ level. Since
English language proficiency is the ability to utilize the English language in the
production and conveyance of meaning in both context of speaking and writing
(University of Queensland, 2016), the situations can be construed that the
Philippine students’ oral communication skills have also regressed.
There are various situations that the oral communication skills of the students have
been displayed in an actual conversation. For instance, in English language
classrooms, diverse learners have been observed to practice code switching, code
mixing or translanguaging. Code switching is the “rapid succession of several
languages in a single speech event” ( Muysken & Muysken, 2000) or “the mixing of
words, phrases and sentences from distinct grammatical (sub-) systems across sentence
boundaries within the same speech event “ (Bokamba, in Mustafa & AL‐KHATIB,
1994).According to Metila et al. (2016),code-switching is commonly practiced in the
Philippines, utilized by teachers during the formal lessons to accommodate learners
whose mother tongue were different from the medium of instruction. It is reportedly
used by educators to explain content that students had difficulty in comprehending.
Apart from the teacher, dela Rosa (2016) has found out that students resort to code-
switching during classroom presentation due to a limited English.
In University of Cebu- Banilad, it was observed that majority of
Cebuano-Visayan educators including those teaching English as
well as students employ code switching in the formal parts of
the teaching instruction. These code switchers especially
students are perceived as having difficulty in orally
communicating their ideas fluently using the English language.
Moreover, their discourses exhibited confusing admixtures of
the two languages’ elements which appears to affect the clarity,
quality and accuracy of their utterances in the oral
communication subjects.
Move 2: Establishing a Niche [the problem]
This action refers to making a clear and cogent
argument that your particular piece of research is
important and possesses value. This can be done by
indicating a specific gap in previous research, by
challenging a broadly accepted assumption, by raising
a question, a hypothesis, or need, or by extending
previous knowledge in some way.
 This practice (code switching) has been both commended and
criticized by different researchers due to the conflicting
findings on its effect to the oral communication skills of
English language learners. Some study found it
beneficial(positive) while others reviled its negative impact to
the target language proficiency (Fareed, Humayun & Akhtar,
2016)
The 7 Research Gaps
(Miles, 2017)
Move 3: Occupying the Niche [the solution]
The final "move" is to announce the means by which
your study will contribute new knowledge or new
understanding in contrast to prior research on the
topic. This is also where you describe the remaining
organizational structure of the paper.
thus this case study is conducted to examine the influence of
code switching to the oral communication skills of the
translingual Senior high school students of University of Cebu
– Banilad campus, Cebu City, Philippines, of the school year
2019-2020 to add elucidation to the ongoing debate, and
enrich perspectives on the literature of code-switching through
a new language pair (Cebuano-Visayan and English or
Engvish).
Sources:
1. https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/CARS
2. Miles, D. (2017), A Taxonomy of Research Gaps: Identifying and
Defining the Seven Research Gaps
3.Olitres, B.J. (2020) Polar Influence of Code Switching to Oral
Communication Skills: The Case of Philippine Cebuano-Visayan
Translinguals
Assignment:

Create the introduction of your study applying the

CARS Model. Cite situationers 3 years back (2017 until
now).Submit next meeting.By Group.