Are men more apologetic than women?

Apologies are common utterances. When an individual has violated a social norm, apologetic utterances are offered. This study investigates how apologies are used in relation to gender. A total of 120 ESL learners were asked to respond to a Discourse Completion Test that had 4 apology situations. Their responses were categorised into different speech act strategies. The results suggest that women tend to apologize more than men. Men and women also differ in the order of primary strategies used. There is a difference in the frequencies and the type of apology strategies used when the respondents apologized to their own gender compared to the opposite

“I doesn’t know English”: beliefs and practices in the teaching of speaking in ESL classroom

“What happened to the 11 years of learning English? A distinction in SPM but cannot speak in English?” Poor communication proficiency among Malaysian learners has become a national problem. Speaking proficiency in ESL is important if Malaysia wants to produce a generation of global communicators, which is in line with the country’s mission to become a fully developed nation. However, we often hear of grievances that many Malaysian graduates are not employed due to their poor communication skills in English. This study seeks to investigate challenges faced by ESL teachers in developing students’ speaking skills. The study involved 47 ESL teachers and 100 students who represented different regions in Malaysia. The respondents were chosen using purposive sampling. Meanwhile, semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data, which were then analyzed using content analysis. The results suggest that both teachers and students perceive speaking as an important language skill. However, teachers face numerous challenges in translating this belief into practice. This has led to a mismatch between what teachers and students perceive they need and the actual practice in the classroom

PENGARUH PRICE FAIRNESS TERHADAP BEHAVIORAL INTENTION : survei terhadap tamu individu repeater yang membeli signature package di harris hotel & convention ciumbuleuit

Sebagai salah satu Hotel bintang 4 di Bandung, HARRIS Hotel & Conventions Ciumbuleuit mengalami rendahnya tamu individu repeater yang berdampak terhadap rendahnya tingkat behavioral intention pada tahun 2016, mengatasi permasalahan tersebut, peneliti memilih price fairness sebagai salah satu solusi yang dapat diterapkan untuk meningkatkan behavioral intention. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui gambaran price fairness dan behavioral intention, serta pegaruh keduanya. Variabel independen penelitian ini yaitu price fairness yang terdiri dari price expectation, reference price, dan room rate perception serta variabel dependen yaitu behavioral intention. Jenis penelitian yang digunakan adalah deskriptif dan verifikatif dengan metode explanatory survey dan pendekatan cross sectional. Sampel penelitian ini sebanyak 106 tamu individu repeater yang membeli signature package di HARRIS Hotel & Cinventions Ciumbleuit, dengan simple random sampling, sementara teknik analisis data yang digunakan adalah regresi berganda. Diperoleh hasil penelitian secara simultan terdapat pengaruh yang signifikan price fairness terhadap behavioral intention, secara parsial, price expectation tidak menunjukan pengaruh yang signifikan terhadap behavioral intention.;---As one of the 4 star Hotel in Bandung, HARRIS Hotel & Conventions Ciumbuleuithas decreased low stay individu repeater guest and effect on low behavioral intention in 2016, In overcoming this problems, researchers choose pice fairness as one solution that can be applied to improve behavioral intention, this study aims to determine the picture of price fairness and behavioral intention, and the infuence of both. The independent variabel of thisresearch of pice fairness consist of price expectation, reference price, and oom rate perception and dependent variable that is behavioral intention. The type of research used is desciptive and verifikatif with explanatory survey method and cross sectional approach. The sample of this study was 106 individual repeater who buy signature package at HARRIS Hotel & Conventions Ciumbuleuit with simple random sampling technique, while data analysis technique used is multiple regression. Simultaneous research obtained a significant effect of price fairness on behavioral intention. Parttialy, price expectation does not show a significant effect on behavioral intention

An investigation of the effectiveness of PBL online on students’ creative thinking: a case study in Malaysia

In this paper we scrutinized the effectiveness of combining the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) approach and Online Learning medium in improving students’ creative thinking particularly amongst physics students. A cohort of 61 science undergraduate physics students from the School of Science and Technology (SST), and 41 pre-service physics teachers from the School of Education and Social Development (SESD) of the University Malaysia Sabah comprised the sample. The sample was broken up into experimental and control groups, with the experimental group experiencing the PBL and online learning activities, and the control group more traditional learning conducts. Both groups were supported via an online learning environment, which acted as the main medium for learning. Participants’ creativity was evaluated using a previously validated instrument, the Torrance Test of Creativity Thinking (TTCT) administered before (pre-test) and after (post-test) the intervention. Examination of these data, points to statistically significant differences between the traditional and PBL groups in creative thinking. Thus the research findings suggest that PBL and Online learning are capable in improving physics students’ and pre-service science teachers’ creative thinking effectively

ESL students’ online and offline reading strategies: scrolling, clicking, flipping and reading / Izyani Mohamad Zaki, Fauziah Hassan and Abu Bakar Mohamed Razali

In this borderless world, computers and the Internet have become important tools of communication and learning and they have also become an important part of our lives. The opportunity to seek information through the computer has made reading an important language skill. Despite the importance of reading and technology, little research to date has been carried out to compare the reading strategies employed by readers when reading online compared to offline. Such studies are important because awareness of the similarities and differences on the strategies employed between these two modes of learning will enable teachers to help develop students’ reading ability. Hence, this study investigates if there is a difference between online and offline strategies used by second language readers. The participants in this study were ESL undergraduates at a university in Malaysia. The instrument employed was the Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS) (Sheorey and Mokhtari, 2001) and Online Survey of Register Strategies (OSORS) by Anderson (2003). These questionnaires tap three different types of information: global reading strategies, problem solving strategies, and support strategies. The results of the study are discussed in terms of their pedagogical implications in the L2 classroom

Information flows of reporting on terrorism attack by online news portal

Issues related to terrorism have been reported excessively by the media in order to tell public by giving recent and significant information. Currently, online media are known to be a major source of news as they can provide information without any delayed to ensure the society stay connected with and being informed on the latest issues. Therefore, this article is specially designed to explore on how the main online news portals in Europe (http://www.euronews.com/) and Africa (http://allafrica.com/) report issues on recent attacks in Paris and Mali. The objectives in this article are threefold: to compare the coverage of news reporting; to identify the news sources used and lastly to identify the news themes that emerged in news reporting. To perform this, a qualitative content analysis approach on two different case studies have been employed and all the news samples were analysed using qualitative software namely QSR NVivo 11. The results indicated that Paris attack issues received 25 news coverage compared to Mali attack issues at 19 news coverage. In terms of news sources used, majority of the news articles used official sources such as Minister, Police officer, spokesperson, media, leader, authorities and security forces. The findings also revealed several news themes such as suspected attackers, rescue efforts, security efforts and death toll are emerged in this analysi

On the relationship between inflation rate and inflation uncertainty: an application of the GARCH family models

The main objective of this paper is to explore the varying volatility dynamic of inflation rate in Malaysia for the period from January 1980 to December 2004. The GARCH, GARCH-Mean, EGARCH and EGARCH-Mean models are used to capture the stochastic variation and asymmetries in the economic instruments. Results show that the EGARCH model gives better estimates of sub-periods volatility. Further analysis using Granger causality test show that there is sufficient empirical evidence that higher inflation rate level will result in higher future inflation uncertainty and higher level of inflation uncertainty will lead to lower future inflation rate

The experience of internal (Domestic) migration among 30 Homeless Former Prisoners in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The recurring return of homeless former prisoners to Chow Kit Road each time after being released from prison leads to various key questions. One of which: What is so interesting about Chow Kit Road that it has become a focal point for these homeless former prisoners? Their return to Chow Kit Road illustrates two big pictures, either they have no choice or they see Chow Kit Road as a suitable home for them. The repeated return of the homeless former prisoners indicated that they have developed a form of comfort and pleasure with the place. Hence, we conducted a qualitative study to understand the repetitive migration among the homeless former prisoners by interviewing 30 of them around Chow Kit Road. This study stopped the data collection process when the study's overall findings achieved data saturation. Atlas.ti software was utilised to perform the thematic coding process. This software provides a more systematic coding process. Several strategies were adopted in this study to increase the data's validity and reliability, triangulation, member check, peer review, long period in the field and audit trail. This study involved a larger qualitative sample by offering several diverse themes. Based on the findings, 11 sub-themes were grouped into 4 superordinate themes, namely social, economic and urban infrastructure, services, and personal offer factors. The social offer factor superordinate theme included sub-themes of familiarity with the environment, ease of getting drugs, and concentration of friends who are also former prisoners. Followed by the economic offer factor with the sub-theme of finding a job and easy ways to earn. The sub-themes of the urban infrastructure and service offer factor superordinate theme were access to transportation, plenty of food aid, and easy access to hospitals. While the sub-themes of the personal offer factor included wanting freedom, nowhere else to go, and bringing oneself away from family. These results added to the existing knowledge by considering migrations from chronic and marginal groups, i.e., the homeless former prisoners as study subjects

Swarm-intelligence tuned current reduction for power assisted steering control in electric vehicle

In electric vehicle technology, battery energy conservation is paramount due to the dependency of all system operations on the available battery. The proportional, integral and derivative (PID) controller parameters in the electric power assisted steering system for electric vehicle needs to be tuned with the optimal performance setting so that less current is needed for its operation. This proposed two methods under the umbrella of swarm intelligence technique namely Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) in order to reduce current consumption and to improve controller performance. The investigation involves an analysis on the convergence behavior of both techniques in search for accurate controller parameters. A comprehensive assessment on the assist current supplied to the assist motor of the system is also presented. Investigation reveals that the proposed controllers, PIDParticle Swarm Optimization and PID-Ant Colony Optimization are able to reduce the assist current supplied to the assist motor as compared to the conventional PID controller. This study also demonstrate the feasibility of applying both swarm intelligence tuning method in terms of reduced time taken to tune the PID controller as compared to the conventional tuning method