Nurkhamimi Zainuddin

Concept Based Instruction: Enhancing Grammar Competence in L2 Learners:

Over the past decades, much of the discussion regarding grammar teaching has evolved around the identification of the best language teaching approach to facilitate effective learning of English language among second language (L2) learners. Despite the various approaches introduced and implemented in the realm of L2 teaching, the language performances of these learners are still ‘off-target’ as they are still found not able to use the correct language expressions to serve their communicative needs. Investigation of the use of concepts in the learning and teaching of grammar may provide an alternative solution in enhancing learners’ L2 grammar competence. Known as Concept Based Instruction (CBI) this pedagogical approach that is predicated on Vygotskian thought, centres on promoting the quality of the grammar rules in helping learners to understand and use the grammar concepts to achieve their communicative needs. This article focuses on the principles found in CBI with the aim of exploring CBI’s potential and hence facilitate in-depth understanding of not only the structural forms but also the semantic meaning of the target language among L2 learners.

The use of augmented reality enhanced flashcards for arabic vocabulary acquisition

This study describes the development process of an augmented reality (AR) enhanced flashcards for non-native students of Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) students to enhance their knowledge and memorization of basic Arabic Vocabulary. An application namely Aurasma was used in the development process. This study was conducted with 20 elementary-level students in USIM by observing their response and their understanding in using the AR enhanced flashcards for Arabic vocabulary acquisition. Findings indicated that AR enhanced flashcards help in scaffolding the knowledge of students regarding the Arabic vocabulary acquisition. Furthermore, from the data collected through the questionnaires, the researchers found that the process of learning is being much easier with the help of the AR enhanced flashcards. The augmented reality considered as one of the platform that can be used to help the students in memorizing certain information and maintained their knowledge of Arabic vocabulary. In addition, students created novel sentences using the target vocabulary words more than half of the time.