Shireena Basree Abdul Rahman

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.

Supervisors’ Written Feedback on Thesis Writing: Postgraduate Students’ Perspectives and Concerns

Failure to complete theses writing and problems related to supervision have been among the main reasons that contribute to high attrition and low completion rates among postgraduate students. In line with this, practice in research supervision; particularly in the aspect of supervisory feedback has been a crucial factor to ensure successful completion among the students. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate students’ perspectives and concerns about supervisors’ written feedback on thesis writing. This descriptive study involved 32 postgraduate students at a graduate school in the largest public university in Malaysia. Data were collected using a mixed-methods research design through the use of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The results indicated written feedback as a sign that supervisors cared about the students’ work and served as an evaluation of their strengths and limitations in writing. It was also found out that low quality and poor timing of feedback were among issues of concern. The findings of the study have implications for postgraduate thesis writing supervision, especially on written feedback.

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.

Does One Size Fit All? The Academic Writing Needs of Undergraduates Across Disciplines

Academic writing is an integral part of tertiary education. Undergraduates are expected to have the necessary linguistic skills to be able to produce writing products that adhere to the different genres, courses and disciplines. This study investigates the academic writing needs of undergraduates from three various disciplines (TESL, Art and Science) of one faculty at a public university. This is the only public university in Malaysia with a language policy where English is the medium of teaching and learning. This study reports the findings of a quantitative data analysis generated from third year undergraduate students (n = 196). Data are derived from the needs analysis instrument used to obtain undergraduates’ self-rated response to academic writing tasks statements. The findings inform that although all three program disciplines are under the same faculty, their academic writing needs are distinctively different. This study proceeds to discuss the implications of these findings for improved future practice in the area of learning and teaching of academic writing.