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4. Case-study 
In the social sciences, a case-study (or case-report) is a 
descriptive, exploratory or explanatory analysis of a person, group 
or event. Case-study may be prospective (in which criteria are 
established and cases fitting the criteria are included as they become 

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available) or retrospective (in which criteria are established for 
selecting cases from historical records for inclusion in the study). 
Case study means analysis of persons, events, decisions, periods, 
projects, policies, institutions, or other systems that are studied 
holistically by one or more methods. The case that is the subject of 
the inquiry will be an instance of a class of phenomena that provides 
an analytical frame – an object – within which the study is 
conducted and which the case illuminates and explicates. Data 
collection in a case study occurs over a sustained period of time. 
Some of the researchers define a case-study as a research 
strategy, an empirical inquiry that investigates a phenomenon within 
its real-life context. According to Lamnek (2005), it is “a research 
approach undertaken between the concrete data of taking techniques 
and methodological paradigms.” 
The popularity of a case-study in testing hypotheses has 
developed only in the recent years. One of the areas in which a case-
study has been gaining popularity is education and in particular 
educational evaluation. 
A case-study has also been used as a teaching method and as 
part of professional development. The problem-based learning 
(PBL) can be presented as an example to it. 
A case-study is also used in FLT and considered as an active 
method. It is based on the analysis of the real life or imaginative 
problem/situation. The students study and analyze a problem 
situation. During study and analysis students get the ready decisions 
which can be used by them in the future practice. In other words it is 
an instrument of implementation of theoretical knowledge into 
practice. For students’ effective participation in the case-study is 
necessary so students should know all the matters of the 
information. In order to carry out this kind of activity students must 
acquire: ways and tools of the research, cooperative, reflective and 
decision-making skills, rules and conventions of conducting 
brainstorming, presentation, criteria of evaluation. The work on the 
case-study is organized in the process of deepen study of the theme 
or at the final stage.

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A teacher’s role here – asking questions, fixing answers and 
monitor the discussion, i.e. the teacher is the manager of the 
students’ creative process.
The benefits of the case-study in comparison with traditional 
methods are: students act freely, express their opinions, acquire new 
knowledge and suggest new decisions.
A case-study issue must meet the following requirements: 
- to correspond to the purpose and the degree of difficulties of the 
case; 
- to illustrate some aspects of professional/situational activity; 
- to be topical at present day; 
- to illustrate typical life situations.
In the Table 9 the stages for organizing a case-study are 
presented.