What is the difference between a research gap and a research problem?

• A research gap is the absence of something in the literature. Something has not been done.

• The research problem is what the absence or gap causes.

• If I say I have a notebook, but I do not have a pen. I am referring to the gap—there is no pen. There is no problem here. Something is not there-absent.

• But when the absence of a pen becomes a problem, if I say I couldn’t write or take notes because I do not have a pen. So, the situation here is that the absence of the pen is a problem.

• Let us see if there is something wrong with the two following statements.

A. The problem is that students do not have enough English vocabulary.

B. The gap is that students do not have enough English vocabulary.

• So, what is the problem?

Because they do not have enough vocabulary, the problem is that students could not start conversations or write.

• So, every time you need to talk about the problem, you need to state what the gap is.

• However, in the literature, researchers often mention the gap, but not the problem. They would say there is little research or no research about something.