International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research
This study reports on teachers’ pedagogical changes upon attending a professional development pro... more This study reports on teachers’ pedagogical changes upon attending a professional development programme. In supporting learners of a second language (L2), dialogic teaching was emphasised as an intervention programme in Malaysian lower secondary ESL classrooms. Dialogic teaching is a pedagogical approach that focuses on the importance of classroom talk in constructing knowledge collectively (Alexander, 2018). This study explored the perceptions of four rural L2 teachers who were participants in a professional development on dialogic teaching and investigated their classroom practices using the approach. The study was qualitative in nature which comprised four individual semi-structured interviews and nine classroom observations for the data collection. The case study method was employed to boost the reliability of the interview findings in which three of the teachers’ classes were observed, video-taped, transcribed, and analysed to identify the dialogic features prevalent in the tea...
International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching
This study aims to investigate the processes of learners' collaborative writing using Google ... more This study aims to investigate the processes of learners' collaborative writing using Google Docs and their perceptions of the collaborative process. Twenty-four undergraduate ESL learners undertaking an academic writing course participated in this study. They were tasked with a paired writing assignment as part of the coursework. Google Docs was used by each pair in revising their drafts before they submitted the final version of their academic essay. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, the qualitative phase involved conducting a textual analysis based on the drafts that the students prepared. The categories used to analyse the revisions were adapted from Kessler et al.'s (2012) analytical categories to understand the focus of learners' revisions. Students' responses to an online survey administered at the end of the course formed the quantitative data. The findings provide insights into the processes of collaborative online writing and students' perceived useful...
This paper analyses the English language needs of service technicians in the pest control industr... more This paper analyses the English language needs of service technicians in the pest control industry. The paper aims to provide a detailed understanding of the communication requirements in the workplace in order to develop a language course appropriate for their needs. In the pest control industry, service technicians are known to be the first point of contact with the customers. The nature of their job involves servicing customers’ premises either weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. This calls for interaction with customers, which requires the ability to perform communicative functions to address customer inquiries and handle their requests and complaints. This paper utilises a needs analysis questionnaire for data collection. The questionnaire was administered to 20 service technicians in the Klang Valley. The result indicates the service technicians are often involved in communication activities: introduction; describing services, processes and people; telephone communication; respondin...
Supplemental material, Appendix_1 for Hedging Functions in Malaysian Doctoral Candidature Defense... more Supplemental material, Appendix_1 for Hedging Functions in Malaysian Doctoral Candidature Defense Sessions by Siti Zaidah Zainuddin, Alexander Charles Damiano-Nittoli and Azlin Zaiti Zainal in SAGE Open
This paper analyses the linguistic output produced by high-proficiency ESL learners during face-t... more This paper analyses the linguistic output produced by high-proficiency ESL learners during face-to-face interaction. This study focuses on the Generation Y participants born in the year of 1990-1996 who have just completed secondary or higher secondary schools. Generation Y or 'Gen Y' who are born in the year of 1980-2000 are also known as 'digital natives' (Prensky, 2001), highly involved in interacting with advanced technology tools and are used to interacting with their peers within a computer-mediated environment. However, less is known about the patterns of interaction of this particular group of ESL learners in face-to-face environment. This study aims to address this gap by analysing how they negotiate meaning based on the given tasks. It also aims to find out whether gender plays a role in the interaction. The participants involved in the study were 11 females and 11 males, 22 in total and paired in a mixed-gender dyads. A decision making two-way tasks were u...
Teaching and learning innovations in higher learning institutions have been radically changed ove... more Teaching and learning innovations in higher learning institutions have been radically changed over time to suit the once an agricultural nation to a more industrialised society. This change needs to be taken as the New Millennium Learners are influenced by advanced information and communication technologies. As we aim to achieve a shift towards more active learning through innovations, a variety of approaches are employed as we make use of digital and physical learning spaces. Blended learning that moves away from traditional classroom approaches with a more interactive learning is integrated in the teaching and learning process. The use of space beyond the conventional classroom setting enhances collaboration with peers and teachers from other countries. This paper intends to synthesise the innovative teaching and learning approaches in Universiti Malaya to accommodate the progressive change of the diverse academic community and industry requirements of our graduates. It aims to pr...
... is 1) How does the Malaysian Government ICT in education policy address the issue of Professi... more ... is 1) How does the Malaysian Government ICT in education policy address the issue of Professional Development of in-service teachers? ... questions: a) What models or principles of teacher training are used in the program? b ...
Educational change, particularly change involving the adoption of educational innovations, is a c... more Educational change, particularly change involving the adoption of educational innovations, is a complex process. In Malaysia, the significant role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in promoting digital education is reflected in the national ICT in education policy. Nevertheless, studies in the Malaysian educational context have shown that the policy implementation resulted in varying degrees of success. Through a discourse analysis approach, this paper aims to examine the evaluation studies on large scale initiatives introduced to digitize the Malaysian education system, from the Smart Schools programme to the incorporation of the Frog Virtual Learning Environment in classroom. The rationale behind these top-down initiatives and how they affected the stakeholders at the micro level, namely, teachers and students, are reviewed and analysed. The analysis informs our understanding of the factors that contribute to the successful and unsuccessful implementation of the...
ICT-Based Assessment, Methods, and Programs in Tertiary Education
Writing skills demand the best pedagogical practices to engage students who struggle with essay w... more Writing skills demand the best pedagogical practices to engage students who struggle with essay writing. In line with the fast-paced, ever-evolving digital advancement, instructors are encouraged to transform their teaching method by integrating technology to help to improve students' writing skills. To do so, one of the ways is to adopt technological tools such as collaborative learning tools in their writing courses to make learning more interactive, interesting, and stimulating. This research, therefore, attempts to examine how Padlet can be utilized to transform didactic teaching and learning into innovative pedagogy to create new learning experiences for tertiary undergraduates. The undergraduates were instructed to use Padlet in their writing task, and this provides many opportunities for constructive learning through a resource-based approach where undergraduates learn from one another and the instructor shows well-written examples or incorrect sentences posted by the und...
Redefining the Role of Language in a Globalized World
In discourses of 21st century learning, there is an increasing emphasis on interdisciplinary lear... more In discourses of 21st century learning, there is an increasing emphasis on interdisciplinary learning. In this chapter, the author first looks at previous research on interdisciplinary teaching and learning. Next, the concept of scientific literacy and how this is related to language will be discussed. The intersections between the teaching of science literacy and language teaching and learning will also be explored. This is followed by research on the use of technology in science education and how technology can enhance science literacy.
With the closure of schools due to imposed lockdowns in many parts of the world, teachers had to ... more With the closure of schools due to imposed lockdowns in many parts of the world, teachers had to make a rapid transition from teaching in physical classrooms to online teaching, even though they had little to no experience teaching online prior to the pandemic. Adopting a narrative inquiry approach, this study aimsto explore the factors that influence Malaysian English language teachers’ professional agency in adapting to online teaching. Data were collected via interviews with ten secondary school teachers from rural and urban schools. The findings show how factors such as teachers’ perceptions of the affordances of digital tools and existing support structures influence teachers’ enactment of agency in online teaching and learning. They also demonstrate teachers' agentic potential to adapt their lessons to suit their learners’ needs. These findings suggest the need for teacher professional development programs to recognize teacher agency in the design of future training module...
Authentic resources act as a platform for engaging learners' interest and making teaching pro... more Authentic resources act as a platform for engaging learners' interest and making teaching processes more relevant and realistic. This action research aims to determine the impact of teaching language in literary texts by integrating the classroom-based learning environment with authentic resources. Two activities, “meet-the-author” and “pseudo-cinematic” events, were designed for this batch of undergraduates. Both activities were delineated by non-canon and canon works respectively. For both, assessments aligned with the “meet-the-author” and “pseudo-cinematic” events were conducted. Results and responses from learners were harvested to account for their experiences. Although there is no drastic positive spike in the overall results, findings answered the principal goal of the research where it is discovered that the activities have helped the learners. Through the possibilities of incorporating authentic resources, it is a means for Instructors to address limitations within cla...
The main aim of the present study is to build knowledge and understanding regarding the linguisti... more The main aim of the present study is to build knowledge and understanding regarding the linguistic use of hedging by Malaysian speakers of English in academic spoken discourse and, more specifically, doctorate students presenting their thesis in the candidature defense. It looks not only to describe the specific nature of spoken academic hedging in Malaysia but to make inroads into identifying cultural factors that shape the way this hedging takes place. To realize these aims, a corpus-based investigative case study that used both quantitative and qualitative methods was used. Transcriptions of candidature defenses and semi-structured interviews regarding the nature of doctoral candidature defense were used to gather the data. The study found that national culture and the dynamic power distance in the educational culture surrounding the defense had an effect on the interpersonal hedging used by Malaysian speakers and the gap in hedging use between panel members and candidates. Disci...
To investigate whether the use of apatient decision aid (PDA) for insulin initiation fulfils its ... more To investigate whether the use of apatient decision aid (PDA) for insulin initiation fulfils its purpose of facilitating patient-centred decision-making through identifying how doctors and patients interact when using the PDA during primary care consultations. Conversation analysis of seven single cases of audio-recorded/video-recorded consultations between doctors and patients with type 2 diabetes, using a PDA on starting insulin. Primary care in three healthcare settings: (1) one private clinic; (2) two public community clinics and (3) one primary care clinic in a public university hospital, in Negeri Sembilan and the Klang Valley in Malaysia. Clinicians and seven patients with type 2 diabetes to whom insulin had been recommended. Purposive sampling was used to select a sample high in variance across healthcare settings, participant demographics and perspectives on insulin. Interaction between doctors and patients in a clinical consultation involving the use of a PDA about startin...
International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research
This study reports on teachers’ pedagogical changes upon attending a professional development pro... more This study reports on teachers’ pedagogical changes upon attending a professional development programme. In supporting learners of a second language (L2), dialogic teaching was emphasised as an intervention programme in Malaysian lower secondary ESL classrooms. Dialogic teaching is a pedagogical approach that focuses on the importance of classroom talk in constructing knowledge collectively (Alexander, 2018). This study explored the perceptions of four rural L2 teachers who were participants in a professional development on dialogic teaching and investigated their classroom practices using the approach. The study was qualitative in nature which comprised four individual semi-structured interviews and nine classroom observations for the data collection. The case study method was employed to boost the reliability of the interview findings in which three of the teachers’ classes were observed, video-taped, transcribed, and analysed to identify the dialogic features prevalent in the tea...
International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching
This study aims to investigate the processes of learners' collaborative writing using Google ... more This study aims to investigate the processes of learners' collaborative writing using Google Docs and their perceptions of the collaborative process. Twenty-four undergraduate ESL learners undertaking an academic writing course participated in this study. They were tasked with a paired writing assignment as part of the coursework. Google Docs was used by each pair in revising their drafts before they submitted the final version of their academic essay. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, the qualitative phase involved conducting a textual analysis based on the drafts that the students prepared. The categories used to analyse the revisions were adapted from Kessler et al.'s (2012) analytical categories to understand the focus of learners' revisions. Students' responses to an online survey administered at the end of the course formed the quantitative data. The findings provide insights into the processes of collaborative online writing and students' perceived useful...
This paper analyses the English language needs of service technicians in the pest control industr... more This paper analyses the English language needs of service technicians in the pest control industry. The paper aims to provide a detailed understanding of the communication requirements in the workplace in order to develop a language course appropriate for their needs. In the pest control industry, service technicians are known to be the first point of contact with the customers. The nature of their job involves servicing customers’ premises either weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. This calls for interaction with customers, which requires the ability to perform communicative functions to address customer inquiries and handle their requests and complaints. This paper utilises a needs analysis questionnaire for data collection. The questionnaire was administered to 20 service technicians in the Klang Valley. The result indicates the service technicians are often involved in communication activities: introduction; describing services, processes and people; telephone communication; respondin...
Supplemental material, Appendix_1 for Hedging Functions in Malaysian Doctoral Candidature Defense... more Supplemental material, Appendix_1 for Hedging Functions in Malaysian Doctoral Candidature Defense Sessions by Siti Zaidah Zainuddin, Alexander Charles Damiano-Nittoli and Azlin Zaiti Zainal in SAGE Open
This paper analyses the linguistic output produced by high-proficiency ESL learners during face-t... more This paper analyses the linguistic output produced by high-proficiency ESL learners during face-to-face interaction. This study focuses on the Generation Y participants born in the year of 1990-1996 who have just completed secondary or higher secondary schools. Generation Y or 'Gen Y' who are born in the year of 1980-2000 are also known as 'digital natives' (Prensky, 2001), highly involved in interacting with advanced technology tools and are used to interacting with their peers within a computer-mediated environment. However, less is known about the patterns of interaction of this particular group of ESL learners in face-to-face environment. This study aims to address this gap by analysing how they negotiate meaning based on the given tasks. It also aims to find out whether gender plays a role in the interaction. The participants involved in the study were 11 females and 11 males, 22 in total and paired in a mixed-gender dyads. A decision making two-way tasks were u...
Teaching and learning innovations in higher learning institutions have been radically changed ove... more Teaching and learning innovations in higher learning institutions have been radically changed over time to suit the once an agricultural nation to a more industrialised society. This change needs to be taken as the New Millennium Learners are influenced by advanced information and communication technologies. As we aim to achieve a shift towards more active learning through innovations, a variety of approaches are employed as we make use of digital and physical learning spaces. Blended learning that moves away from traditional classroom approaches with a more interactive learning is integrated in the teaching and learning process. The use of space beyond the conventional classroom setting enhances collaboration with peers and teachers from other countries. This paper intends to synthesise the innovative teaching and learning approaches in Universiti Malaya to accommodate the progressive change of the diverse academic community and industry requirements of our graduates. It aims to pr...
... is 1) How does the Malaysian Government ICT in education policy address the issue of Professi... more ... is 1) How does the Malaysian Government ICT in education policy address the issue of Professional Development of in-service teachers? ... questions: a) What models or principles of teacher training are used in the program? b ...
Educational change, particularly change involving the adoption of educational innovations, is a c... more Educational change, particularly change involving the adoption of educational innovations, is a complex process. In Malaysia, the significant role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in promoting digital education is reflected in the national ICT in education policy. Nevertheless, studies in the Malaysian educational context have shown that the policy implementation resulted in varying degrees of success. Through a discourse analysis approach, this paper aims to examine the evaluation studies on large scale initiatives introduced to digitize the Malaysian education system, from the Smart Schools programme to the incorporation of the Frog Virtual Learning Environment in classroom. The rationale behind these top-down initiatives and how they affected the stakeholders at the micro level, namely, teachers and students, are reviewed and analysed. The analysis informs our understanding of the factors that contribute to the successful and unsuccessful implementation of the...
ICT-Based Assessment, Methods, and Programs in Tertiary Education
Writing skills demand the best pedagogical practices to engage students who struggle with essay w... more Writing skills demand the best pedagogical practices to engage students who struggle with essay writing. In line with the fast-paced, ever-evolving digital advancement, instructors are encouraged to transform their teaching method by integrating technology to help to improve students' writing skills. To do so, one of the ways is to adopt technological tools such as collaborative learning tools in their writing courses to make learning more interactive, interesting, and stimulating. This research, therefore, attempts to examine how Padlet can be utilized to transform didactic teaching and learning into innovative pedagogy to create new learning experiences for tertiary undergraduates. The undergraduates were instructed to use Padlet in their writing task, and this provides many opportunities for constructive learning through a resource-based approach where undergraduates learn from one another and the instructor shows well-written examples or incorrect sentences posted by the und...
Redefining the Role of Language in a Globalized World
In discourses of 21st century learning, there is an increasing emphasis on interdisciplinary lear... more In discourses of 21st century learning, there is an increasing emphasis on interdisciplinary learning. In this chapter, the author first looks at previous research on interdisciplinary teaching and learning. Next, the concept of scientific literacy and how this is related to language will be discussed. The intersections between the teaching of science literacy and language teaching and learning will also be explored. This is followed by research on the use of technology in science education and how technology can enhance science literacy.
With the closure of schools due to imposed lockdowns in many parts of the world, teachers had to ... more With the closure of schools due to imposed lockdowns in many parts of the world, teachers had to make a rapid transition from teaching in physical classrooms to online teaching, even though they had little to no experience teaching online prior to the pandemic. Adopting a narrative inquiry approach, this study aimsto explore the factors that influence Malaysian English language teachers’ professional agency in adapting to online teaching. Data were collected via interviews with ten secondary school teachers from rural and urban schools. The findings show how factors such as teachers’ perceptions of the affordances of digital tools and existing support structures influence teachers’ enactment of agency in online teaching and learning. They also demonstrate teachers' agentic potential to adapt their lessons to suit their learners’ needs. These findings suggest the need for teacher professional development programs to recognize teacher agency in the design of future training module...
Authentic resources act as a platform for engaging learners' interest and making teaching pro... more Authentic resources act as a platform for engaging learners' interest and making teaching processes more relevant and realistic. This action research aims to determine the impact of teaching language in literary texts by integrating the classroom-based learning environment with authentic resources. Two activities, “meet-the-author” and “pseudo-cinematic” events, were designed for this batch of undergraduates. Both activities were delineated by non-canon and canon works respectively. For both, assessments aligned with the “meet-the-author” and “pseudo-cinematic” events were conducted. Results and responses from learners were harvested to account for their experiences. Although there is no drastic positive spike in the overall results, findings answered the principal goal of the research where it is discovered that the activities have helped the learners. Through the possibilities of incorporating authentic resources, it is a means for Instructors to address limitations within cla...
The main aim of the present study is to build knowledge and understanding regarding the linguisti... more The main aim of the present study is to build knowledge and understanding regarding the linguistic use of hedging by Malaysian speakers of English in academic spoken discourse and, more specifically, doctorate students presenting their thesis in the candidature defense. It looks not only to describe the specific nature of spoken academic hedging in Malaysia but to make inroads into identifying cultural factors that shape the way this hedging takes place. To realize these aims, a corpus-based investigative case study that used both quantitative and qualitative methods was used. Transcriptions of candidature defenses and semi-structured interviews regarding the nature of doctoral candidature defense were used to gather the data. The study found that national culture and the dynamic power distance in the educational culture surrounding the defense had an effect on the interpersonal hedging used by Malaysian speakers and the gap in hedging use between panel members and candidates. Disci...
To investigate whether the use of apatient decision aid (PDA) for insulin initiation fulfils its ... more To investigate whether the use of apatient decision aid (PDA) for insulin initiation fulfils its purpose of facilitating patient-centred decision-making through identifying how doctors and patients interact when using the PDA during primary care consultations. Conversation analysis of seven single cases of audio-recorded/video-recorded consultations between doctors and patients with type 2 diabetes, using a PDA on starting insulin. Primary care in three healthcare settings: (1) one private clinic; (2) two public community clinics and (3) one primary care clinic in a public university hospital, in Negeri Sembilan and the Klang Valley in Malaysia. Clinicians and seven patients with type 2 diabetes to whom insulin had been recommended. Purposive sampling was used to select a sample high in variance across healthcare settings, participant demographics and perspectives on insulin. Interaction between doctors and patients in a clinical consultation involving the use of a PDA about startin...
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