SCAFFOLDING COLOUR CODES AND SAW APPROACH IN ESL ACADEMIC WRITING

Past researches have shown that students use visual organizers to connect content and ideas in their writing. Graphic organizers serve as scaffolds to organize ideas in essays. The use of graphic organizers facilitates chunking of information and help in learning. Colour codes act as scaffolds (templates) for writers to transfer the information from the graphic organizers into paragraphs. The whole act of scaffolding knowledge to form new knowledge provides a learning experience to the learner. This research explores yet an alternative method for writers to learn to write paragraphs using colour codes as scaffolds. This method is rooted from the concepts of Selective Attention embedding colour codes as scaffolds. Colour codes are used to focus the learners’ attention during the learning of academic writing. Modelling is used so learners can imitate the expected behaviour by the teachers. Graphic organizers are used as scaffolds for learners to write their essay. After one semester of using the techniques such as modelling, and scaffolding in the writing classroom, learners were asked to respond to a survey. 32 students participated in this action research. They responded to a questionnaire to reveal what they feel about this approach to ESL academic writing. The findings of this study reveal how students perceive learning ESL academic writing using the selective attention writing approach.  Article visualizations

AN INVESTIGATION OF WRITERS’ BLOCK THROUGH RHETORICAL SITUATION

Students do experience writing blocks. Writers’ blocks are caused by many reasons. When writers write, they face rhetorical problems. Past studies have shown that these problems are easily solved by skilled writers. However, less skilled writers may take a longer time to get out of the rhetorical problems. Rhetorical problems can be categorized into two. Firstly, many writers face problems due to their failure to attend to their own goals (writers’ own goal). Next, writers also face problems with rhetorical situation. Rhetorical situations can be categorized as problems with the assignment and problems with the audience. This qualitative study explored the causes of writers’ block among three different levels of writers. Findings revealed that the three levels of writers had different causes of writing blocks. Some were caused by paying attention to perfection, some feared not being understood by the readers.  Article visualizations

EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY: A TOOL FOR LANGUAGE RESEARCH

Many researchers who studied language learning in the classroom have used theories of educational psychology as their foundation of knowledge. Understanding the theories of educational psychology and how they can be useful in classroom learning can help researchers answer the “why” in research. Some language researchers choose to study language teaching methodology, others prefer studies that look into the behavior of language learners. There are also some language studies that looked into the influence of the environment on language teaching and learning. This paper reports findings of past studies in the language classroom that used educational psychology as basis for understanding behaviour in teaching and learning.&nbsp

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFORMING IN WRITING: AN ANALYSIS OF READ-TO-WRITE PROCESS

Academic writing depends on critical reading. Writers need to read materials to be used as support and evidence in their writing. The writing process of an academic writer mirrors the knowledge transforming model. The link between reading and writing has been established by past studies. The read-to-write process is the academic writing process that writers go through but focused more on the reading activities to prepare for materials to be included in the essay. This study is done to explore the perception of writers in their reading stage (read-to-write process). 176 undergraduates taking academic writing course were randomly chosen to respond to the instrument. The instrument is a 5 Likert-scale with 34 items on topics pertaining to variables found in the knowledge transforming model. Findings reveal that writers take alternative roles and reader and writer in the writing process. Findings also reveal interesting pedagogical implications in the teaching and learning of both academic reading and writing.  Article visualizations

INNOVATION IN EDUCATION: BARRIERS AND FACILITATING FACTORS

Many assumed innovation has to do with technology and new inventions. That is far from the truth. Innovation can be as simple as finding new ways of doing things. Millennials learn differently from their older generation peers. The exposure of technology has caused  many millennials to have poor communications skills. They are also reported to have shorter attention span For millennials , learning needs to be fun and relaxing. Innovative ideas need to be identified from a list of recognizable facets of innovation. This paper reports a literature review of different facets of innovation in education. The objective of this paper is to explore how the environment influence innovation in learning. This paper also looks into the barriers and facilitating factors for innovation in education.  Article visualizations

WRITERS’ BELIEFS AND EXPECTATIONS IN ACADEMIC WRITING: TOWARDS A MODEL OF WRITING PROPHECIES

Writers have mixed feelings about academic writing. Some hated academic writing. Some liked academic writing. Some liked but they get disheartened with low marks. Some like and are motivated to write better with good marks. The love-hate relationship that writers have towards writing can be depicted in the form of a writing prophecy. This study investigates how writing prophecies influence writers’ own self-imposed belief and how this belief is affected by other imposed expectation and finally these impacted the results of the writing activity. This quantitative study is done using a survey with 5 likert scale. The categories in the survey are (a) Planning, (b) Translating and (c) Reviewing stages of writing. The independent variables like Type A writer, Type B writers and Type C writers are added in the survey. Type A refers to the perceived belief that the writer who has self-imposed negative perception will have a negative writing belief. Next, type B is when the writers have self-imposed perception, but they received negative other imposed expectation. This can still lead to positive beliefs as the writer is motivated. Type C refers to writers who have positive self-imposed perception and received positive other imposed expectation. This can lead to positive writing belief. Data is analysed using SPSS version to reveal frequency of responses and presented in mean scores. Article visualizations

REVISITING LECTURERS’ ROLE: TOWARDS A MODEL OF LECTURERS’ QUADRANTS

Many would agree that lecturers have multiple roles. By the nature of what the term “teacher”, “lecturer” or “instructor” means, the basic job description is that of teaching and learning. For many years, the debate of “teaching vs research” has been going on. Lately, lecturers in universities are given the responsibility to initiate collaborations with the industries. This paper reports a review of literature and past studies on the connection between teaching, innovation, research and also industry. The paper ends with a summary of review revealing the multiple roles of the lecturer. The theoretical contribution of this paper is to provide a conceptual model of the multiple roles of the lecturer in the form of quadrants. In order to gain a “whole”, the lecturer has to achieve all FOUR quadrants. It is hoped that this conceptual model paves the way for a more in-depth study of each of the quadrants of the lecturer.   Article visualizations

INVESTIGATING THE CYCLE OF FEAR IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING

Many learn foreign language for personal or job-related reasons. It is cliché to say that learning a foreign language is important for students to join the bandwagon of “globalized learning”; although that is true! Many reported they enjoyed participating in language related activities. However, for some learners, learning a foreign language may not be a pleasant experience. Anxiety for foreign language learning causes other problems for learners. These problems may snowball to effect other performance and achievement in other language related areas; thus, creating a cycle of fear. Two theories are merged to form the cycle of cycle of fear for foreign language learning. This study used the instrument by Horwitz (1986) who developed the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale. There were 7 items on demographic profile, 8 items for communication apprehension, 5 items for fear of test anxiety. There were also 9 items of fear of negative evaluation, and items on fear of language classes. Findings reveal that the communication apprehension that students portray, can snowball to learners fearing taking test and getting negative evaluation and then this fear may extend to fearing the foreign language classes.  Article visualizations

INVESTIGATING CHALLENGES FOR LEARNING ENGLISH THROUGH SONGS

Teachers teaching in the 21st century find classroom teaching and learning more challenging than it used to me. Generation Y are known to have problems with communication and generation Z are known to prefer learning tasks that contain the use of technology and activities that include the elements of fun. The use of songs has been successfully used in the teaching of English as a second/foreign language. Songs are known to motivate learners in the classroom. However, some language teachers report facing problems when they use English songs as teaching materials. This pilot study explores the challenges teachers face when they use of English songs in the English classrooms. Respondents were chosen from a public university in Malaysia. The instrument used is a questionnaire. Findings of the study revealed that teachers and learners face challenges such as pronunciation and meaning when English songs are used in the English classrooms.  Article visualizations

SOCIAL MEDIA AND ITS INFLUENCE ON VOCABULARY AND LANGUAGE LEARNING: A CASE STUDY

Social media is a prominent medium of communication and used by all generations. Besides a tool of communication, institutions have integrated social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube as learning tools to deliver new information and connect with students. The popularity social media gained over the years has become a debate whether social media platforms are effective teaching and learning tool. This study attempts to seek the influence of social media on English vocabulary development among students in public and private universities in Malaysia. This study also aims to explore the influence of social media on interest in language learning skill. Besides, this study investigates how these platforms cause positive and negative influence language learning. Data and responses for this study made use of questionnaires. The questionnaire data was then analyzed quantitatively using SPSS. The findings revealed that social media sparks language learning interest among English learners. Article visualizations