Radzuwan Ab Rashid

Topic continuation strategies employed by teachers in managing supportive conversations on Facebook Timeline

This article is part of a larger study on teachers’ co-construction of social support on a social networking site. The aim of this article is to elucidate how a topic introduced in the Facebook Status updates are negotiated with/by Friends through the Comment function. Adopting discourse topic management as its theoretical framework, the article presents the findings related to topical action of continuing topic observed in the Comments on Timelines, which reflects the strong presence of support on the site in the sense that Friends show their interest in taking up the topic. The analysis shows that strategies for continuing topics in face-to-face conversations are creatively employed by teachers on Timelines and this leads to the emergence of unique characteristics of this new mode of online interaction. In this respect, this article contributes to the expansion of discourse topic theory by highlighting the characteristics of Timeline conversations that emerged from the analysis of topic continuation.

Reforms in the Policy of English Language Teaching in Malaysia.

This paper reviews reforms related to English language teaching in the Malaysian education system. It begins by tracing the history of Malaysia as a former British colony which has had significant influences on the status of English in the country. Then, it reviews the key educational reforms which have mainly centred on language policy, thus putting pressure on teachers who are at the front-line for the implementation of the new reforms. This is followed by the discussion on the changing approaches in the curriculum and methodology of English language teaching. This paper also reviews the formal professional development programmes which reveal that Malaysian teachers are not always given adequate and continuous support to cope with the ongoing reforms. The paper concludes that even though the changes in policies aimed to improve the quality of education, implementation was often made in haste, causing a loud public outcry from teachers.

Cutting Parameters and the Machinability Performance

Optimizing cutting parameters is very significant to obtain good machined surface and meet engineering specifications. It is also can save energy, reduce waste, save processing time, and increase tool life.

Learning from the Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Plastic Project

Design-Expert V9 software was used to predict the cutting parameters that had an important effect for a particular response. Since the surface roughness for CFRP and Al2024 was recorded as two different responses, the analysis was conducted separately. The obtained results from the experiment are listed in Table 4.1 which is then used for further analysis using Design-Expert V9 software. The input variables were spindle speed, feed rate, and depth of cut; meanwhile, the responses were surface roughness for CFRP and Al2024. The analysis began with the analysis of CFRP machined surface and then followed by Al2024 machined surface.

Composite Materials and Types of Machining

A composite material is a composition of two or more constituent materials to form an overall structure which significantly better in terms of mechanical or chemical properties than the sum of individual material.

Speech Acts in the Facebook Status Updates Posted by an Apostate

This paper discusses the speech acts in Facebook Status Updates posted by an apostate of Islam. The Facebook Timeline was observed for a duration of two years (January 2015 to December 2016). More than 4000 postings were made in the data collection period. However, only 648 postings are related to apostasy. The data were classified according to the types of speech acts. Expressive speech act is the most frequent speech act (33%, n=215), followed by the directive (27%, n=177), assertive (22%, n=141), and commissive (18%, n=115), respectively. Based on the speech acts used, it is discernible that the apostate attempts to engage other Facebook users and persuade them into accepting her ideology while gaining their support. This paper is novel in the sense that it puts forth the social actions of an apostate which is very scarce in literature. It is also methodologically innovative as it uses social media postings as a tool to explore the apostate’s social actions in an online space.

A Review of Spelling Errors in Arabic and Non-Arabic Contexts

The purpose of this review paper is to identify the core spelling errors in Arabic and Non Arabic Contexts. The most common difficulty that Arab learners may face during their English writing is correct spelling, for many different reasons such as the interference between English and Arabic language and the irregularity of the English language system. Several studies have been undertaken to evaluate writing mistakes and spelling errors in English, and most of them have classified spelling errors into three different categories: morphemic errors, where the errors occur in the morphemes parts (prefixes and suffixes); Intra-Morphemic errors, where errors occur in the word roots themselves such as deleting the final (silent) e vowel in the word write, and splits types, where the learners leave a space inside the word for example, write my self as two words instead of myself, one word. Apart from the three categories mentioned above, other studies claim that there are eight different types of error related to the abilities of the students and the nature of the error, and these include inversion, omission, substitution, segmentation, insertion, pronunciation, miscellaneous, and unclassified errors. In this review paper, we have found interlingual and intralingual –related errors where interlingual errors are mainly caused by the interference of the primary or mother language, while, intralingual errors are due to the system and instruction of the target language. Finally, suggestions are given based on previous research about how to review the spelling errors in Arabic and Non Arabic contexts to identify the error and also overcome the problem through alternatives that can be implemented to create a positive impact and can be furthermore used for all types of positive learning.

EFL Students’ Attitude Toward Using Metacognitive Strategies in Writing

Metacognitive learning strategies are higher–order executive skills that help learners become more independent, autonomous, and capable of planning, monitoring and evaluating learning process. This research was aimed at investigating EFL students’ attitude towards the use of metacognitive strategies in writing. Data were generated through in-depth interviews with 10 EFL students purposively selected from Irbid secondary school, Jordan. Only students from experimental group, who received the intervention, were interviewed. The data obtained were analyzed using ATLAS.TI version 8. The findings indicate that the majority of students acknowledged the usefulness of metacognitive strategies in improving their writing performance, but some experience difficulties in implementing the strategies. The majority of students reported positive attitudes toward metacognitive strategies as they help them to improve their English writing and cultivate learning autonomy. This paper recommends that metacognitive instruction should be incorporated in writing classrooms as it helps students to become more self-regulated.

The Academic Writing Experience of Jordanian Postgraduate Students at a University in Malaysia

Writing in English for academic purpose is a difficult task for many Jordanian postgraduate students (JPS) as English is a foreign language to them. This study aimed to explore academic writing problems encountered by JPS at a Malaysian university and to investigate how they address the problems. Employing a case study approach, a total of 182 online questionnaires were administered via email to registered JPS at UniSZA to which 90 responses were received. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 17 of the respondents to get further clarification of the questionnaire data and to gain rich insights into the phenomenon being investigated. The findings reveal that JPS faced several problems such as lack of vocabulary, difficulties in expressing the ideas, organizing the sentences and creating paragraphs, paraphrasing, the inability to build critical discussions and ideas, erroneous grammar, spellings, weak referencing and difficulty in finding the article/journal for literature review. In order to address these problems, they acquire help from their classmates, seniors, teaching faculties, participate in educational forums, workshops and lectures, attend paid tuition classes, translate Arabic to English, subscribe to journals and magazines and used online resources. The JPS recommend the provision of extensive language support at the university, regular lectures and workshops on improving academic writing and availability of language enrichment centre at the university to aid JPS to resolve their problems related to academic writing.

Teachers’ Feedback on the Development of Virtual Speaking Buddy (VirSbud) Application

This study aims at identifying the ideal characteristics of a virtual speaking buddy (VirSbud), as perceived by the teachers, so that the current VirSbud application can be further developed to meet the users’ expectation. Employing a qualitative approach, an in-depth group interviews was conducted with five English language teachers teaching in Standard Three (nine-year-old pupils). Prior to the interview, the teachers used the application as a teaching aid for eight weeks. The interview reveals the ideal characteristics of an application for virtual speaking buddy. The teachers expected a more sophisticated application which enables online participation, two different interfaces accessible by learners and teachers, looping in the prompts given to the learners, and the use of voice recognition which enables automatic response to the learners. The findings point towards the need of semi-formal learning, instead of formal and informal learning, in developing learners’ speaking skills with the teachers being virtually present at a distance.