Pahang state folklore based on the legend of Chini Lake dragon

This paper discusses the famous Pahang state folklore which is the Legend Dragon of Chini Lake. This state has an extensive forest as well as breathtaking islands. Among the popular attractions are Tioman Island and Chini Lake. Chini Lake is very famous for its stories of dragons in various versions. It is said that the history of Tioman Island started with the tale of the dragon that left Chini Lake. It is believed that the story of the dragon is related to an island in Indonesia. Hence, the name of the villages on the island are similar to the names of the villages on Tioman Island such as Mukut, Genting, Juara, Salang and Paya. Apart from the similarity of the village name, the shape of both islands is also quite similar as both have sharp mountain tops such as dragon horns. The similarity of the name of the village has led to allegations that the residents of Tioman Island are from the Riau Archipelago and Khmer, Cambodia.The allegation states that the residents there are of Cambodian descent because the dialects used have little in common. Nevertheless, this unique qualities demands more in-depth research to be documented to today’s generation

Snapticon: Developing effective listening skills for group oral discussion

In many higher education institutions (HEIs) around the world, one of the popular English oral assessments for ESL learners is group discussion. In group discussions, it is vital that they have the ability to manage topics in a discussion by knowing how to initiate a topic, expand on the topic, seamlessly shift from one topic to another as well as close the topic appropriately. Students are therefore required to utilise their verbal and non-verbal skills to actively interact with all group members. Listening and speaking skills are equally important for effective communication including participating in group oral discussion. In order to help ESL learners to be active participants in group discussions, a card game called Snapticon was created. Open-ended questionnaires were distributed to 25 respondents in the study and observations were made while the game was being played. It was found from the findings that the respondents were positive as they regarded the game as interesting and fun. Therefore, it can be concluded that Snapticon has the potential to be used as a learning material to help develop ESL learners’ effective listening skills in group oral discussions. Moreover, the use of Snapticon enables learners to be interactionally competent when participating in group oral discussions

Are We Out Of The Woods Yet? An Analysis Of Figurative Expressions Utilized In Taylor Swift’s 1989 Album

The study focuses on the descriptive analysis of figurative expressions utilized in lyrics of Taylor Swift’s 1989 album. According to Carroll (2008), the use of language where the semantic features of the lexicon do not literally relate to the context is known as figurative language. Figurative expressions can often be found in lyrics and is an interesting aspect of a language to discuss. Although previous studies reveal various significant aspects of figurative expressions in pop songs, in particular, there has not been substantial examination of the use of connotation, the device that conveys non-literal or indirect meanings in different dimensions, emotions, and attitudes in these songs. Using the language figuratively is a technique of creating connotative meaning and gives meaningful message to certain audience with the need of interpretation (Suriyawongpaisal, 2013). Hence, it is the interest of this study to focus on the types of figurative expressions and further explore the connotations expressed through figurative expressions in her songs. To conduct this study, all the lyrics of thirteen songs in the 1989 album were identified and classified according to each figurative expressions. A qualitative research with descriptive analysis was used as the method of data analysis. This paper utilizes the 11 types of figure of speech proposed by Kennedy (1979) which are metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, synecdoche, metonymy, irony, oxymoron, litotes, paradox, and symbol. This study concludes with recommendations for future research and is expected to make a contribution to the literature of figurative expressions especially for but not limited to pop songs

Topic Management in Collaborative Oral Group Discussion of English as a Second Language Learners

This study investigates the management of topic in peer collaborative interaction in assessment context. The ability to manage discussion topic in a specific communicative event is fundamental to interactional competence. Topic initiation, topic expansion, moving from one topic to another as well as introducing new topics to peers during collaborative talk requires not only participants’ linguistic abilities but also active participation of all members. This study analysed oral group interactions of English as a Second Language Learners in an institution of higher learning in Malaysia. Group oral interactions of five groups from thirty students were transcribed and analysed using qualitative analysis software, Atlas.Ti. for thematic analysis. The topics used for the oral group discussion were part of compulsory assessments that the students had to undergo in order to complete the course. The findings show that the students were able to initiate the discussion, expand the topic at hand, provided agreement and disagreement where necessary in their effort to ensure the successful completion of the assigned task. The findings of the study have direct implications for language teaching and learning development especially where oral group interactional competence is concerned