Malaysia has gone through vast changes in various fields since it attained its independence from ... more Malaysia has gone through vast changes in various fields since it attained its independence from Britain in . Among these changes were implementations of policies related to educational syllabus and the medium of instruction where languages were used to impart knowledge. The country had inherited a divide-and-rule system from the colonial era where schools in the past were set up along ethnic lines and conducted in different languages. Hence, education in Malaysia has been multilingual. During pre-independence, primary schools were available in four medium of instruction, namely English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil. During post-independence, Bahasa Malaysia (Malay) was declared the sole national language in . However, severe race riots occurred in May , which catalysed a change in the education system where all English medium schools were instructed to phase out. National Language and National Educational
Chinese students from vernacular schools in Malaysia need to master three languages, which are En... more Chinese students from vernacular schools in Malaysia need to master three languages, which are English, Malay, and Chinese. Since English is the second language (L2) that they learn, it causes problems for them in learning the four skills in English including writing. This study aims to investigate the most common errors in essays written in English by 70 Form One Chinese students in a selected public school in Perak. For all of these students, Chinese is their first language (L1). Using an error classification scheme and Markin 3.1 software, 70 essays were analyzed and categorized into 18 types of errors. The results of the analysis show that four most common errors were mechanics, tenses, preposition, and subject-verb agreement. In composing these essays, the students were very much influenced by their L1. Intra lingual transfer of Malay and developmental errors were also observed in their writing. This study suggests that teachers need to emphasize on how certain concepts are handled in English, Malay and Chinese. It is also important to make the students aware of the differences in the structure of English, Malay and their L1. Certain rules in Chinese and Malay that do not work when they write in English need to be highlighted. Students need to understand the differences of these languages and make use of the unique features to produce good and acceptable sentences.
The process of teaching and learning involves two parties: instructors and students. In teaching ... more The process of teaching and learning involves two parties: instructors and students. In teaching a course at higher learning institutions, instructors not only have to prepare for the course and deliver the course, but they also have to evaluate students' achievement. Instructors normally evaluate students' understanding and their ability to express ideas through coursework that are given in the form of written assignments e.g. essays. This paper presents CMS, a Coursework Management System that helps instructors to manage coursework. This system provides facilities for students' online registration for the course, online submission of coursework, marking of assignments and tabulation of marks for each of the assignments that constitute the coursework.
This article presents a review on the teaching and learning of vocabulary in the ESL classroom, s... more This article presents a review on the teaching and learning of vocabulary in the ESL classroom, specifically the acquisition of specialized vocabulary in hospitality and tourism. Past researches have shown that the size and coverage of vocabulary plays an important role in vocabulary acquisition, and that vocabulary learning can benefit from both intentional and incidental means. Studies on specialized vocabulary in Malaysian institutions of higher education have been very limited and past researches have focused on the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) for example business and medicine. There appears to be very few studies conducted within the culinary realm due to its infantile growth in Malaysia. The emergence of current interest into the hospitality and tourism related fields in the last few years in Malaysia provide promising future for both culinary students and educators. Thus, more research in culinary studies for L2 students are called for to further enhance its development for educational and commercial purposes in Malaysia.
Many young executives today are unable to write effectively, have weak thinking skills, and have ... more Many young executives today are unable to write effectively, have weak thinking skills, and have problems understanding how to operate successfully within the structure of the business environment (Stapa, Darus, Mustaffa, & Maasum, 2005; Thomas, 1994). In this ever-increasing amount of information in the business world, there is a need for young executives to get their message across clearly and effectively. Therefore, this paper will review previous studies pertaining to this area of research and highlight the important findings. It will also suggest the needs to carry out similar research to investigate the current writing practice in business organizations in the Malaysian context. These findings can serve as input for course developers, syllabus or curriculum designers, teachers and educators in preparing their students for the business writing tasks.
Heuristics and Rule-Based Approach for Automated Marking Tool for ESL Writing
Automated essay marking systems developed from late 1960's attempted to prove that a computer... more Automated essay marking systems developed from late 1960's attempted to prove that a computer can mark essays as good as any other human beings. This paper discusses an approach for developing an automated marking tool for English as a second language (ESL) and introduces heuristics and rule-based approach to detect grammatical errors in tenses in ESL essays. The results show that heuristics and rule-based approach is useful and can improve the effectiveness of automated essay marking tool for writing in ESL.
Learning to write in a composition culinary course is very challenging for L2 learners. The main ... more Learning to write in a composition culinary course is very challenging for L2 learners. The main barrier in writing proficiency within this discipline is the lack of vocabulary, specifically the lack of exposure towards specialized vocabulary. This study aims to provide a corpus of specialized vocabulary within a food writing course. By providing students with a word list of specialized vocabulary in the course, students may benefit by familiarizing with the language discourse which will aid in better comprehension of the course, and subsequently facilitate in their writing development. A compilation of all PowerPoint slides from one writing course was assembled and analyzed using the range and frequency program to identify the specialized vocabularies in a food writing course. The corpus was categorized using a four step rating scale, which identified 113 specialized vocabularies in food writing. The learning of specialized vocabulary specialized vocabulary is an important issue at the tertiary level in Malaysia, with educators' realization of the importance of discourse proficiency in ESP programs, thus many more research is yielded on the many new issues on the teaching and learning of specialized vocabulary particularly within the academic and professional context.
This article discusses the elements essential for developing a supplementary online writing progr... more This article discusses the elements essential for developing a supplementary online writing program for tertiary students of English as a Second Language (ESL) at University Teknologi MARA, Johor Branch, on the basis of a framework derived from the results of a needs-analysis study. The participants in this study were sixty Part Three Diploma students taking the BEL 311 compulsory general English proficiency course, and four writing lecturers, each of whom had taught the course for more than five years. The students filled out a needs-analysis questionnaire; the lecturers were interviewed. The findings revealed not only learning and writing problems among students but also, most importantly, the elements that are perceived by students and lectures as essential for developing a supplementary online writing program. These elements include aspects pertaining to critical thinking, autonomous learning, social interaction, and learner interest.
The study investigates the use of an online composing guide known as IQ-Write Program Composing G... more The study investigates the use of an online composing guide known as IQ-Write Program Composing Guide (IQ-WCG) developed for ESL tertiary students at MARA University of Technology Malaysia (UiTM). The participants in this study were 60 Part Three Diploma students from UiTM taking an English proficiency course known as BEL311 (English for Academic Purposes). The students were divided into two groups which were the experimental and the control group. The experimental group, consisted of 30 students used IQ-WCG; whereas, the other 30 students in the control group learned writing without it. The students in the experimental group were given a set of questionnaires regarding their perceptions on the use of IQ-WCG. The test results were analyzed using the quantitative and qualitative measures.
In many instances, negative attitudes towards writing as well as other language learning problems... more In many instances, negative attitudes towards writing as well as other language learning problems have been linked to ESL students' poor performance in writing. The study investigates ESL tertiary students' writing attitude and the learning problems they face in BEL 311 writing course at MARA University of Technology. The participants in the study were 60 Part Three Diploma students taking BEL 311 course, and 4 writing instructors who have been teaching this course for more than 5 years. The students were given a set of needs analysis questionnaires, and the lecturers were interviewed. In addition, both groups of participants were asked to describe the important elements which they perceive as useful for a supplementary online writing program. The results indicate that the lecturers felt the majority of the students have negative attitude towards writing as they would procrastinate. They are also careless and dislike writing. The findings from the participants also revealed ...
Past researches have shown that there is a difference in language use between males and females a... more Past researches have shown that there is a difference in language use between males and females attributed by their roles and society's stereotyping or perceptions. Fast changing technology has provided another means for young people to express themselves using language as a tool. This study investigates the differences in language use by female and male Malaysian teenage bloggers who use blogs as a diary to express their daily issues about life. The language used is informal and similar to spoken language. Using a qualitative approach, this study aims to examine gender differences observed in the language features used by male and female teenagers in their blogs. The findings show that there are differences between male and female bloggers in the frequencies of five language features which are 'intensifiers', 'hedging', 'tag questions', 'empty adjectives' and 'adverbs'. The results of the study show that differences in language use among teenage bloggers may largely be attributed to gender.
The Japanese language is among the international languages which are highly demanded in the educa... more The Japanese language is among the international languages which are highly demanded in the education system in Malaysia, all the more so since the Look East Policy Program was launched in July 1981 by the 4th Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. Japanese language course has been offered at the National University of Malaysia (UKM) as early as 1975. The course uses the textbook Minna no Nihongo and Introduction to the Hiragana and Katakana Japanese Writing. However, the exclusive dependence on both textbooks has created a passive and teacher-centred learning environment. In line with the present development of information and communication technology, it is felt that an innovation in terms of Japanese language pedagogy should be carried out to balance the needs of the Internet (I is always capitalised) generation. The Net and digital generation is a social generation that actively communicates, cooperates, and connects using technology in the virtual realm. One of the technologies that can be utilised is by using Web 2.0 applications. Therefore, an eclectic method of intervention is needed by integrating and practising Web 2.0 elements to realise an educational environment and system that is even more conducive, modern and futuristic. This study focused on students taking the Japanese language course SKVA2723 at the School of Language Studies and Linguistics in UKM from February to December 2012 for 2 semesters. A total of one teacher and 55 students were involved in this study. The applications of Web 2.0 such as JING, Screencast.com, YouTube, OnlineNihongo website, and Wordpress were utilised in the teaching and learning of Japanese language. The period of learning for the Japanese language subject was four hours for fourteen weeks per semester. Through questionnaires, observations and tests conducted, the findings showed that the group of students who were exposed to the 2.0 applications showed more motivation, enthusiasm, excitement and higher scores compared to the group that was not exposed to the applications. The implication from this study is that the use of Jing can be applied to more complex kanji orthography, particularly those that require more than 10 strokes. It is hoped that applications such as Screencast.com, YouTube and Wordpress can inspire new ideas, encourage student-centred learning and can be shared with Japanese language and foreign language courses from other universities and other institutions.
Malaysia has gone through vast changes in various fields since it attained its independence from ... more Malaysia has gone through vast changes in various fields since it attained its independence from Britain in . Among these changes were implementations of policies related to educational syllabus and the medium of instruction where languages were used to impart knowledge. The country had inherited a divide-and-rule system from the colonial era where schools in the past were set up along ethnic lines and conducted in different languages. Hence, education in Malaysia has been multilingual. During pre-independence, primary schools were available in four medium of instruction, namely English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil. During post-independence, Bahasa Malaysia (Malay) was declared the sole national language in . However, severe race riots occurred in May , which catalysed a change in the education system where all English medium schools were instructed to phase out. National Language and National Educational
Chinese students from vernacular schools in Malaysia need to master three languages, which are En... more Chinese students from vernacular schools in Malaysia need to master three languages, which are English, Malay, and Chinese. Since English is the second language (L2) that they learn, it causes problems for them in learning the four skills in English including writing. This study aims to investigate the most common errors in essays written in English by 70 Form One Chinese students in a selected public school in Perak. For all of these students, Chinese is their first language (L1). Using an error classification scheme and Markin 3.1 software, 70 essays were analyzed and categorized into 18 types of errors. The results of the analysis show that four most common errors were mechanics, tenses, preposition, and subject-verb agreement. In composing these essays, the students were very much influenced by their L1. Intra lingual transfer of Malay and developmental errors were also observed in their writing. This study suggests that teachers need to emphasize on how certain concepts are handled in English, Malay and Chinese. It is also important to make the students aware of the differences in the structure of English, Malay and their L1. Certain rules in Chinese and Malay that do not work when they write in English need to be highlighted. Students need to understand the differences of these languages and make use of the unique features to produce good and acceptable sentences.
The process of teaching and learning involves two parties: instructors and students. In teaching ... more The process of teaching and learning involves two parties: instructors and students. In teaching a course at higher learning institutions, instructors not only have to prepare for the course and deliver the course, but they also have to evaluate students' achievement. Instructors normally evaluate students' understanding and their ability to express ideas through coursework that are given in the form of written assignments e.g. essays. This paper presents CMS, a Coursework Management System that helps instructors to manage coursework. This system provides facilities for students' online registration for the course, online submission of coursework, marking of assignments and tabulation of marks for each of the assignments that constitute the coursework.
This article presents a review on the teaching and learning of vocabulary in the ESL classroom, s... more This article presents a review on the teaching and learning of vocabulary in the ESL classroom, specifically the acquisition of specialized vocabulary in hospitality and tourism. Past researches have shown that the size and coverage of vocabulary plays an important role in vocabulary acquisition, and that vocabulary learning can benefit from both intentional and incidental means. Studies on specialized vocabulary in Malaysian institutions of higher education have been very limited and past researches have focused on the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) for example business and medicine. There appears to be very few studies conducted within the culinary realm due to its infantile growth in Malaysia. The emergence of current interest into the hospitality and tourism related fields in the last few years in Malaysia provide promising future for both culinary students and educators. Thus, more research in culinary studies for L2 students are called for to further enhance its development for educational and commercial purposes in Malaysia.
Many young executives today are unable to write effectively, have weak thinking skills, and have ... more Many young executives today are unable to write effectively, have weak thinking skills, and have problems understanding how to operate successfully within the structure of the business environment (Stapa, Darus, Mustaffa, & Maasum, 2005; Thomas, 1994). In this ever-increasing amount of information in the business world, there is a need for young executives to get their message across clearly and effectively. Therefore, this paper will review previous studies pertaining to this area of research and highlight the important findings. It will also suggest the needs to carry out similar research to investigate the current writing practice in business organizations in the Malaysian context. These findings can serve as input for course developers, syllabus or curriculum designers, teachers and educators in preparing their students for the business writing tasks.
Heuristics and Rule-Based Approach for Automated Marking Tool for ESL Writing
Automated essay marking systems developed from late 1960's attempted to prove that a computer... more Automated essay marking systems developed from late 1960's attempted to prove that a computer can mark essays as good as any other human beings. This paper discusses an approach for developing an automated marking tool for English as a second language (ESL) and introduces heuristics and rule-based approach to detect grammatical errors in tenses in ESL essays. The results show that heuristics and rule-based approach is useful and can improve the effectiveness of automated essay marking tool for writing in ESL.
Learning to write in a composition culinary course is very challenging for L2 learners. The main ... more Learning to write in a composition culinary course is very challenging for L2 learners. The main barrier in writing proficiency within this discipline is the lack of vocabulary, specifically the lack of exposure towards specialized vocabulary. This study aims to provide a corpus of specialized vocabulary within a food writing course. By providing students with a word list of specialized vocabulary in the course, students may benefit by familiarizing with the language discourse which will aid in better comprehension of the course, and subsequently facilitate in their writing development. A compilation of all PowerPoint slides from one writing course was assembled and analyzed using the range and frequency program to identify the specialized vocabularies in a food writing course. The corpus was categorized using a four step rating scale, which identified 113 specialized vocabularies in food writing. The learning of specialized vocabulary specialized vocabulary is an important issue at the tertiary level in Malaysia, with educators' realization of the importance of discourse proficiency in ESP programs, thus many more research is yielded on the many new issues on the teaching and learning of specialized vocabulary particularly within the academic and professional context.
This article discusses the elements essential for developing a supplementary online writing progr... more This article discusses the elements essential for developing a supplementary online writing program for tertiary students of English as a Second Language (ESL) at University Teknologi MARA, Johor Branch, on the basis of a framework derived from the results of a needs-analysis study. The participants in this study were sixty Part Three Diploma students taking the BEL 311 compulsory general English proficiency course, and four writing lecturers, each of whom had taught the course for more than five years. The students filled out a needs-analysis questionnaire; the lecturers were interviewed. The findings revealed not only learning and writing problems among students but also, most importantly, the elements that are perceived by students and lectures as essential for developing a supplementary online writing program. These elements include aspects pertaining to critical thinking, autonomous learning, social interaction, and learner interest.
The study investigates the use of an online composing guide known as IQ-Write Program Composing G... more The study investigates the use of an online composing guide known as IQ-Write Program Composing Guide (IQ-WCG) developed for ESL tertiary students at MARA University of Technology Malaysia (UiTM). The participants in this study were 60 Part Three Diploma students from UiTM taking an English proficiency course known as BEL311 (English for Academic Purposes). The students were divided into two groups which were the experimental and the control group. The experimental group, consisted of 30 students used IQ-WCG; whereas, the other 30 students in the control group learned writing without it. The students in the experimental group were given a set of questionnaires regarding their perceptions on the use of IQ-WCG. The test results were analyzed using the quantitative and qualitative measures.
In many instances, negative attitudes towards writing as well as other language learning problems... more In many instances, negative attitudes towards writing as well as other language learning problems have been linked to ESL students' poor performance in writing. The study investigates ESL tertiary students' writing attitude and the learning problems they face in BEL 311 writing course at MARA University of Technology. The participants in the study were 60 Part Three Diploma students taking BEL 311 course, and 4 writing instructors who have been teaching this course for more than 5 years. The students were given a set of needs analysis questionnaires, and the lecturers were interviewed. In addition, both groups of participants were asked to describe the important elements which they perceive as useful for a supplementary online writing program. The results indicate that the lecturers felt the majority of the students have negative attitude towards writing as they would procrastinate. They are also careless and dislike writing. The findings from the participants also revealed ...
Past researches have shown that there is a difference in language use between males and females a... more Past researches have shown that there is a difference in language use between males and females attributed by their roles and society's stereotyping or perceptions. Fast changing technology has provided another means for young people to express themselves using language as a tool. This study investigates the differences in language use by female and male Malaysian teenage bloggers who use blogs as a diary to express their daily issues about life. The language used is informal and similar to spoken language. Using a qualitative approach, this study aims to examine gender differences observed in the language features used by male and female teenagers in their blogs. The findings show that there are differences between male and female bloggers in the frequencies of five language features which are 'intensifiers', 'hedging', 'tag questions', 'empty adjectives' and 'adverbs'. The results of the study show that differences in language use among teenage bloggers may largely be attributed to gender.
The Japanese language is among the international languages which are highly demanded in the educa... more The Japanese language is among the international languages which are highly demanded in the education system in Malaysia, all the more so since the Look East Policy Program was launched in July 1981 by the 4th Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. Japanese language course has been offered at the National University of Malaysia (UKM) as early as 1975. The course uses the textbook Minna no Nihongo and Introduction to the Hiragana and Katakana Japanese Writing. However, the exclusive dependence on both textbooks has created a passive and teacher-centred learning environment. In line with the present development of information and communication technology, it is felt that an innovation in terms of Japanese language pedagogy should be carried out to balance the needs of the Internet (I is always capitalised) generation. The Net and digital generation is a social generation that actively communicates, cooperates, and connects using technology in the virtual realm. One of the technologies that can be utilised is by using Web 2.0 applications. Therefore, an eclectic method of intervention is needed by integrating and practising Web 2.0 elements to realise an educational environment and system that is even more conducive, modern and futuristic. This study focused on students taking the Japanese language course SKVA2723 at the School of Language Studies and Linguistics in UKM from February to December 2012 for 2 semesters. A total of one teacher and 55 students were involved in this study. The applications of Web 2.0 such as JING, Screencast.com, YouTube, OnlineNihongo website, and Wordpress were utilised in the teaching and learning of Japanese language. The period of learning for the Japanese language subject was four hours for fourteen weeks per semester. Through questionnaires, observations and tests conducted, the findings showed that the group of students who were exposed to the 2.0 applications showed more motivation, enthusiasm, excitement and higher scores compared to the group that was not exposed to the applications. The implication from this study is that the use of Jing can be applied to more complex kanji orthography, particularly those that require more than 10 strokes. It is hoped that applications such as Screencast.com, YouTube and Wordpress can inspire new ideas, encourage student-centred learning and can be shared with Japanese language and foreign language courses from other universities and other institutions.
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