Pre-service teachers' predilection of writing strategies in ESL classrooms

This research is done with the hope to shed some light on the preferred strategies and approach of the pre-service teachers in adopting product approach (FDA) and process approach (PCA)as writing instructions in the selected ESL classrooms. The PDA emphases on the final piece of writing while PCA aims at the development of the writing process. The FDA which is popular in the contemporary ESL classrooms seems to be useful in some ways. Teachers are able to cover syllabus and topics on time and reach out to students by assessing students' writing. On the other hand, researchers argue that the strategies of PCA help students to get involved in the writing process and make students to become less fearful to start writing and thus, help to improve the students' writing. However, PCA is less popular currently due to its tediousness of preparation of several drafts that consumes ample of time. Hence, this study analyzes the features of both the approaches thoroughly. This research hopes to be an eye opener to all educators especially the pre-service teachers in terms of writing instructions to help their students learn the necessary writing skills more sufficiently in the future

A preliminary study of stress in higher education and contributing factors to lecturers

A flexible working hour is one of the advantages for most lecturers. However, the settings of too much key performance index (KPI) based on 7 indicators that need to be achieved tend to cause the lecturers stress. This preliminary study was carried out to identify the factors that significantly contribute to lecturers’ stress. A total of 40 academicians were selected as respondents from three selected university which was under the cluster Comprehensive University, Research University and Focus University. This preliminary study found that the stress level among Malaysian lecturers were at low moderate level with mean value 2.40. Significantly the work load and job activities, networking, health and personal of lecturers have contributions to the level of their stress even in simple moderate level. This finding directly showed that Malaysian lecturers still can manage their daily work routine and control their stress level. It can be assumed that all lecturers have great passion to be lecturers, and thus, they can cope with the 7P loads and face various challenges. In addition, the element of belief in God helps the lecturers to proceed with their carriers peacefully

Happiness at higher education institutions: an empirical study among Malaysian lecturer

Lecturers‘ tasks are different from the teachers‘. Flexible working hours and composite work specification sometimes make thier working life unstable and it will indirectly affect their happiness. This study was conducted to identify the triggering factors that affect the happiness of Malaysian academicians‘ happiness. A total of 40 academicians were selected as respondents from three selected university which was under the cluster Comprehensive University, Research University and Focus University. This preliminary study found that the happiness level among Malaysian academicians at Higher Education Institutions were at moderate level with the mean value of 3.118 and standard deviation value of .3791. The university factor (organization) was found to have a moderate higher mean (3.245) than the individual factor (mean = 3.022) and social factor (mean = 2.991). Based on this finding, it can be concluded that work load and job activities have high impacts towards lecturers‘ happiness. The finding also relatively showed that lecturers have interest and passion on specific tasks. Hopefully, this finding can help in producing a criterion on happiness for lecturers at Malaysian public higher education institutions

Mediator effect between leadership style and organizational effectiveness of employee commitment: a Malaysian perspective

Past research has mostly focused on the impact of leadership style on organizational effectiveness. However, the role of employee commitment such as absenteeism, turnover or discipline problem as a mediator has been neglected. Thus, the objective of this study is (i) to determine the relationship between the transformational and transactional leadership style and the organizational effectiveness, and (ii) to identify the effect of employee commitment as a mediator, either as partial or full mediator in the relationship between the leaders' behaviours. A total of 130 public service officers were selected based on purposive sampling to participate in a survey. The instruments used were the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire to measure the respondents’ perceptions towards the transformational and transactional leadership style, a Three-Component Model of Employee Commitment to measure the employees’ commitment, and Index of Perceived Organizational Effectiveness to measure the organizational effectiveness. Frequency distribution and percentages to describe the respondents' demographics were analysed using descriptive statistics while the relationship between the transformational and transactional leadership style and the organizational effectiveness were analysed using Pearson Correlation and Multiple Regression. To determine the effect of employee commitment as a mediator, three regression equations based on Baron and Kenny model were run through Multiple Regression Analyses. The results revealed that employee commitment was found to have a partial mediator effect in the relationship between leadership style and effectiveness of the organization. This study provided some insights on the importance of leadership style and the effect of employee commitment to enhance the effectiveness of an organization

The socio-economic dimensions of the fisherman’s well-being at Batam Island: a descriptive survey

The well-being of the people is a fundamental part of a government's drive towards a developed nation. Indonesia's maritime community is one of the few minority communities that need attention in order to achieve Indonesia's balance of growth. Therefore, this study aims to achieve three main objectives, namely, to know the well-being of the Bertam Island fishermen, to explore the social and economic dimensions of Bertam Island and to study the role of the government in enhancing the wellbeing of the well-being of Bertam Island, Batam. This study is a descriptive survey study. The data were collected using survey method and questionnaire instrument. The study found that the well-being of the Bertam Island community is at a moderate level in terms of social and economic dimensions and the role of the government in enhancing fisheries welfare, which have mean score value 2.66, 2.60 and 2.55 respectively. Overall, the well-being of fishermen can be measured by the socio-economic dimensions and the role of government can be conducted from time to time and make well-being as one of the benchmarks in monitoring the current development of the Bertam Island, Batam

Factors affecting english oral communication among Malaysian civil engineering graduates an exploratory analysis

This study examined the factors affecting English oral communication skills among the civil engineering graduates in Malaysia. The purpose of this study was to explore the crucial challenging factors faced by graduates the in speaking in English. A survey technique was used to collect data from 150 civil engineering graduate of a university in Malaysia. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and factor analysis. Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy value was .907 (highly significant). The factor analysis showed that there were four prime factors: lack of practice, poor readings habits, poor vocabulary and cramming habits. This study also provided some suggestions to improve their oral communication skills

Integration of product and process approaches in ESL classrooms

English as a second language (ESL) writing instructions demand a great deal of the teachers’ time and effort to prepare adequate writing lessons for their students. Teachers have to decide on the right approach to be selected as the instructional method to enhance students’ writing ability. Thus, this study investigates the preferred teaching practices (between the product and process approach) of 10 pre-service teachers’ in teaching writing and the effects on students’ written texts. The data were collected from observations, semi-structured interviews and students’ written texts. The data from the observation checklists were analyzed using Rasch Measurement Model which validated the study with a high value of alpha Cronbach (0.81). Thematic and textual analyses were conducted on participants’ views and the students’ written text respectively. The findings highlighted the pre-service teachers preferred to employ product approach as their main writing instruction where the students were found to prepare their written work based on the input provided to them. The students’ written work with linguistic accuracy was mainly focused but the students did not show much creatively. Thus, this study recommends that teachers should integrate process approach strategies into their writing instructions to enhance students’ writing more profoundly in the future

Application of rasch model on resilience in higher education: an examination of validity and reliability of Malaysian academician happiness index (MAHI)

This preliminary study was conducted to examine and verify the validity and reliability of the instrument on the Malaysian Academician Happiness Index (MAHI) on resilience. MAHI could be seen as a tool to measure the level of happiness and stress of academicians before determining how resilient the academicians were. Resilience can be defined as a mental ability of a person to recover quickly from illness or depression. MAHI instrument consisted of 66 items. The instrument was distributed to 40 academicians from three groups of universities which were the Focus University, Comprehensive University and Research University is using a survey technique. The instrument was developed to measure three main constructs which were the organization, individual and social that would affect the happiness and stress levels of academicians. This preliminary study employed the Rasch Measurement Model uses Winsteps software version 3.69.1.11. to examine the validity and reliability of the items. The results of the analysis of the MAHI instrument showed that the item reliability was 0.87, person reliability was 0.83 and value of Alpha Cronbach was 0.84. Meanwhile, misfit analysis showed that only there was one item with 1.46 logit that could be considered for dropping or needed improvement. Therefore, it highlighted that most of the items met the constructs’ need and can be used as a measurement indicator of MAHI. The implication of this instrument can help Malaysian academicians to be more resilient in facing challenges in the future

English as a second language (ESL) writing instructions and the effects on primary students: a multiple case study

English as a second language (ESL) writing instruction is a challenging task for teachers. Writing lessons need to be prepared adequately by deciding on the right approach to be employed as the instructional methods influence students’ learning greatly. This study investigates the preferred teaching practices (between the product and process approach) of 10 pre-service teachers’ in teaching writing and the effects on students’ written texts. The data were collected from observations, semi-structured interviews and students’ written texts. The data from the observation checklists were analyzed using Rasch Measurement Model which validated the study with a high value of alpha Cronbach (0.81). Thematic and textual analyses were conducted on participants’ views and the students’ written text respectively. The findings revealed that product approach was the preferred practice. Consequently, the students’ prepared very identical pattern of written work based on the participants’ input. The students were able to prepare the written work with linguistic accuracy but did not show attempt to write more creatively. Thus, this study recommends teachers to integrate process approach strategies into their writing instructions to guide students to write more profoundly in future

Teacher trainees preference of the end-product over the writing process in ESL writing classrooms

This study investigates the preference of teacher trainees in adopting product approach (PDA) and process approach (PCA) as writing instructions in Malaysian ESL classrooms. The PDA focuses on the end product while PCA targets the development of the writing process. The PDA which is popular in the contemporary ESL classrooms seems to be beneficial in several ways. Teachers are able to cover syllabus and topics on time and reach out to students by assessing students' writing. Meanwhile, the PCA, which is less popular currently, helps students to get involved in the writing process by producing several drafts and become less fearful to start writing. Hence, this stuch, analyzes the features of both the approaches in detail. This paper hopes to be an illuminating factor in terms of writing instructions to help the students to learn necessary writing skills and benefit the teacher trainees to teach writing more convincingly in future