The Effects Of Parental Reading Socialisation On The Reading Skill Performance Of Rural Primary School Students In Sarawak

Extant research on home literacy practices such as parental reading socialisation have demonstrated positive impacts on children in terms of academic performance. A particular aspect that sparks pedagogic importance is the scaffolding potential of reading at home to the learning of English language in non-native English Language contexts. This study aimed to examine the effects of mother’s involvement in home- reading sessions on students’ English reading skill performance in Bau, Sarawak. Prior to carrying out the intervention of reading at home with their children, 31 mothers of Bidayuh ethnicity voluntarily attended a one-day workshop to orient them to the intervention and the use of logbooks to record details of their shared readings. However, only 18 mothers conducted reading sessions with their children and submitted a total of 21 logbooks detailing the frequency and material selection for reading. Their children, consisting of primary 1 to 4 students were required to sit for a pre-test and a post-test that measure their English language reading proficiency. The test scores were analysed using the paired-sample T-test. There was a significant increase in the students’ post-test scores following the reading intervention. The results revealed that despite the low frequency of mother-child shared reading sessions, the sessions positively affected the students’ reading performance. This finding suggests that parental reading socialisation can facilitate students’ literacy development. However, the use of materials in Bidayuh as a native language as opposed to Malay or English may increase the rural parents’ participation in home-literacy activities, and encourage early literacy in children

Gen Y and Gen Z Communication Style

Communication style plays a crucial role in managing the multigenerational ecosystem of the present world. This study examined the communication style of Gen Y and Gen Z. The participants were 311 youth (Gen Y, 68; Gen Z, 243). The questionnaire on communication style was developed based on Hartman and McCambridge (2011). The online survey was conducted from 6 April 2020 to 11 May 2020 by distributing the questionnaire link to people who were in the Gen Y and Gen Z age groups. The results showed that both groups were similar in their general characteristics, which included preferences for group-work, affirmation, clear rules, and for their opinions to be valued. They liked face-to-face communication, and using visuals for online communication. There were significant differences in some of their study and work habits, that is, the Gen Y are better than Gen Z at analysing information obtained from the Internet, and handling a lot of work at one time, whereas Gen Z expected more instantaneous feedback than Gen Y. As for communication style, they were amiable communicators who were low on assertiveness, prioritised relationship over task in task completion, and had a slow-paced communication style. The results showed that Gen Y and Gen Z had some style-typing ability, whereby they compared their communication style with their peers. More practised style-flexing, as in fitting their communication to the target group but Gen Y had a stronger information-focus. Their demographic background (gender, ethnic group, socio-economic status) did not influence their communication style, indicating the stronger influence of their generational cohort. The study suggests that employers who require goal-oriented communication need to make their expectations clear to Gen Y and Gen Z employees

A FEMINIST STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF FEMALE REPRESENTATION IN MALAY BEAUTY PRODUCT ADVERTISEMENTS ON INSTAGRAM

Beyond financial profits, an advertising discourse also impacts the socio-cultural construct of members in a particular community. In the context of sexism, the overt manipulation of gender portrayal and language is still a prevalent advertising practice, especially detectable in advertising activities conducted via social media platforms. This qualitative study investigated the use of language in Malay beauty product advertisements. Anchored on the feminist stylistic framework (Mill, 1998), the textual analysis approach was employed to analyze 150 Malay beauty products advertisements sourced from Instagram. Focusing on the use of language in depicting women and the influence of the language in developing the depiction, the stylistic features in particular were examined based on Verdonk (2002)’s stylistic features guide. Findings showed that the stylistic features used contain traits that are stereotypically prescribed to women. Evidences manifesting in seller’s use of language demonstrates the extensive influence of patriarchy, stereotype and woman sexualisation as a promotional strategy for Malay beauty products. This study aspires to provide evidence-based grounds for improvements to be made on the current social media advertising practice; particularly in terms of language appropriateness and ethics

Millennials’ Expectations of Life at the University and the Workplace: A Malaysian Perspective

This study examined the millennial’s expectations of life at the university and the workplace.Questionnaire data were obtained from 142 students aged 20 to 24 in a Malaysian public university from different disciplines. The results showed that most of the participants were highly feedback oriented and expected instant face-to-face feedback from their lecturers, particularly when in emails. They relied on lecture notes to understand the lectures, but would also look for supplementary reading materials. They expected lecturers to deliver interesting lectures but would attend boring lectures to comply with lecture attendance rules. The results also suggest that many participants would not sacrifice their personal time to meet either assignment or work deadlines because they expected deadline extensions. Although the participants preferred positive comments, they also expected to be reprimanded for unsatisfactory work performance. They also expected a fair amount of individual work compared to group work at the workplace. The findings suggest that the participants generally had realistic expectations of university and work life

Accessing News in the Digital Era: The Case of Sarawak, Malaysia

Recent trends show that people around the world are increasingly accessing news via mobile devices and digital platforms such as search engines and social media. The study examined whether such trends were escalating in the contexts where a large number of people continued to access news from traditional media sources such as TV, news, and print. A survey of 512 respondents living in Sarawak, Malaysia was conducted (33.8% rural, 10% suburban, and 56.2% urban). The results showed that the mobile gadgets most commonly used to access news are smartphones (49%) and 29.5% of respondents used both smartphones and laptop computers to read the news. The streaming device most frequently used to get news was Chromecast with Google TV. A majority of the respondents read online newspapers but they mostly read free news. Only 21.7% subscribed to online news portals. A comparison showed that online newspaper was gaining popularity over printed newspapers, and the use of live news streaming, news video, and podcast was on the rise. The study revealed that 19.3% did not use any gadgets to read the news, and they relied on traditional forms such as TV, printed newspapers, and radio. The most popular TV news channels for the Sarawakians were TV3 Media Prima and the newly established TV Sarawak. Among pay TV, Astro was popular. The study showed the appeal of mainstream news outlets to satisfy the news needs of Sarawakian viewers for updates on daily news, local news, and breaking news in the digital era

University Students’ Communication and Employability Skills: Mismatch Perspectives of Students, Lecturers, and Employers in Sarawak, Malaysia

In Malaysia, graduate unemployability is a problem that is often highlighted. Studies have shown that graduates lack soft skills, such as problem solving, English language proficiency, and communication skills, which contribute to the issue of unemployability. However, these studies have not investigated employability skills from all three perspectives of students, lecturers, and employers to understand whether students are developing the necessary skills to be more employable, and whether lecturers are getting it right when preparing their students for the job market. Therefore, this study fills in the gap by comparing university students’ communication and employability skills from the perspectives of students, lecturers, and employers. The study aimed to determine students’ ratings of communicative ability and employability skills, and how these ratings match those of the lecturers and employers, and to compare the ranking of the importance of these skills by lecturers and employers. The questionnaire data were collected from 123 students, 26 lectures, and 26 employers in Sarawak, Malaysia. The findings showed that the students rated themselves more highly on reading and writing, and employability skills than on listening and speaking skills. The lecturers and employers ranked employability skills as more important than communication skills. They were consistent in the ranking of interpersonal skills and presentation skills as the top communication skills. The top employability skills were time management skills, leadership qualities, managing personnel, managing resources, teamwork spirit, planning, organising, controlling and evaluation skills, and problem-solving aptitude. However, lecturers prioritised teamwork spirit while employers prioritised problem-solving aptitude. However, none of the reading and writing skills were among the top 10 skills expected of graduates entering the workplace. In concluding the study, the overall findings indicated that the students and lecturers overrated the students’ readiness for the workplace

Conceptualising the role of opinion leaders as moderator to local communities commitment in corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication

Corporations are subjected to high criticism due to the misuse of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) communication to shelter their wrongdoing in running business activities. Obtaining trust from the local communities will increase corporations’ chances to earn Social Licence to Operate (SLO). Although communication is typically a two-way process, in communication research, getting a response from the targeted personnel is much more valuable. However, extant studies provide insufficient understanding related to communicative framework in engaging with local communities. Current research trends in CSR communication are skewed towards the effects of CSR communication, legitimacy of CSR communication, as well as the challenges in carrying out CSR communication. In this study, the current model of communication which is based on the mechanistic perspective of communication is discussed and expanded. Three important communication elements are analysed, and their relationship is proposed to form a new conceptual framework that includes a fourth element: opinion leader. The suggested framework primarily describes and provides arguments for the extent of communication willingness in affecting communication commitment. The crux of this framework is communication quality; transpiring in three formative factors namely bi-directional communication, symmetrical information and transparency. This framework believes that investigating the role of opinion leader in moderating the success of CSR communication adds empirical insights in the emerging literature of CSR communication. The discussed framework could be implemented in understanding dialogue between corporations and local communities

CONCEPTUALISING CSR COMMUNICATION: EXPLORING THE MODERATING ROLE OF OPINION LEADERS ON ORGANISATIONCOMMUNITY DIALOGUE

Corporate organisations have been subjected to high criticisms due to the misuse of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) communication in building the trust of the local communities. Constructed on the different approaches of community engagement initiatives, the communities’ trust is central in ensuring the organisation’s ability to obtain its Social License to Operate (SLO). Despite its importance, there is a lack of empirical attention and effort in developing a communicative framework that analyses organisation’s CSR Communication with local communities. In this article, the CSR Communication framework deliberates and expands the mechanistic perspective of communication by exploring the moderating role of opinion leaders in strengthening the relationship between the postulated corresponding variables. The use of this framework is expected to facilitate future analysis that supplies fresh insights on the relationship between the Organisation’s CSR Communication initiatives, Opinion Leaders, and Local Communitie

Do You Still Watch the News on TV? Examining TV News Viewing among Malaysians Today

Television has long been recognized as a significant source of news for the mass public. Research has shown the rise and fall in the public viewing of news on television due to the advancement of digital technologies. Younger audiences, in particular, have turned to social media to access news and this trend is rapidly growing. The current study sought to ascertain if this was the case for people who may continue to watch television news despite the said technological advances. Interviews with 40 individuals from the East Malaysian state of Sarawak were conducted to gather their views on whether people living in Malaysia still watch television news and the factors contributing to this trend. The findings show that television remains an integral part of the participants' everyday lives and that it continues to be an important medium for disseminating news. While the younger participants reported that they regularly accessed news on social media, they still turned to television as a more reliable and trustworthy news source. The findings revealed several factors that contributed to television news viewing among the participants: the social-familial, the situational-environmental, the personal, and the technological. The findings shed useful insights into the current trend of television news viewing among the mass public as the world is gradually ending the COVID-19 pandemic and transitioning into endemic while experiencing news consumption on digital media