Review of “Initial English Language Teacher Education : International Perspective on Research, Curriculum and Practice”

This book is aimed at providing an understanding of the processes and experiences that teacher educators and teacher students undergo in their early stages of the English language teacher education journey, with a focus on the voices of teacher educators and teacher learners. The book also aims to encourage institutions to move from training to development in the quest for sustainability and vision in teacher education. The book delivers the intended aims by providing research based studies conducted in teacher education settings in various countries, namely, Argentina, Brazil, China, Colombia, Kenya, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, United Kingdom and Uruguay

The effects of different rater training procedures on ESL essay raters' rating accuracy

The study investigated the effects of three commonly employed rater training procedures on the rating accuracy of novice ESL essay raters. The first training procedure involved going through a set of benchmarked scripts with scores, the second involved assessing benchmarked scripts before viewing the scores. The third was a combination of the former and latter. A pre, post and delayed post-experimental research design was employed. Data were collected before, immediately after and one month after training. Actual IELTS scripts with benchmarked scores determined by subjecting expert IELTS raters’ scores through Multi-Faceted Rasch (MFR) analysis were used for the training and data collection purposes. Sixty-three TESL trainees were selected based on their pre-training rating accuracy to form three equally matched experimental groups. The trainees’ scores for the essays before, immediately after and one month after the assigned training procedure were compared with the official scores for the operational essays. Although the findings indicate that generally, rater training improves raters’ rating accuracy by narrowing the gap between their scores and the official scores, different training procedures seem to have different effects. The first training procedure significantly improved raters’ rating accuracy but showed a decreasing effect with time. The second training procedure showed immediate as well as delayed positive effects on raters’ rating accuracy. The third training did not lead to significant immediate improvement, but rating accuracy improved significantly after some time. This paper discusses the implications of the findings in planning efficient and effective rater training programmes

My 'Highlanders' Family

On the 1"t of -October 2000, leaving behind my barely lvTone-year-old baby in the capable hands of Ashley, i headed to Bario with the eBario team. The team boarded a plane from Kuching to Miri and rater a 12-seater twin otter flight from Miri to Bario. The weather was rough and thus it was indeed a bumpy ride all the way from Miri to Bario. Iwas feeling dizzy andnauseated. When we finally landed, I clumsily got out of the plane and headed towards the tiny Bario Airport - it was hardly an airport in the e1-es of arr urban girl. A group of people inch,ding Cikgu Lucy Buian greeted us at the airpori. Their .-i1", uid E arm welcome made my dizziness and nausea evaporate urto the cool fresh air of Bario

Carving your destiny in academia as a “lecturer” and a “mother”

Hidden within the single-word job title “lecturer” is a long list of multi-layered responsibilities. For a woman who is a lecturer, possibly added to this long list is the undefinable crucial “job” packaged into an oversimplified single word – “Mother.” In this autoethnography, the author provides a comprehensive view of a woman’s life in academia by illustrating how she navigates through the demanding responsibilities of a university lecturer and carves her destiny out of the academic world while endeavouring to be the best possible mother. The author shares the attractive opportunities and the real challenges faced while pursuing a PhD. This is followed by an illustration of the challenges experienced in holding major administrative positions and how a display of commitment increases visibility and bolsters research networking. This chapter also unfolds the secrets to maintaining career-life balance by developing the support system that enables a woman in academia to weave her career trajectory

Carving your destiny in academia as a “lecturer” and a “mother”

Hidden within the single-word job title “lecturer” is a long list of multi-layered responsibilities. For a woman who is a lecturer, possibly added to this long list is the undefinable crucial “job” packaged into an oversimplified single word – “Mother.” In this autoethnography, the author provides a comprehensive view of a woman’s life in academia by illustrating how she navigates through the demanding responsibilities of a university lecturer and carves her destiny out of the academic world while endeavouring to be the best possible mother. The author shares the attractive opportunities and the real challenges faced while pursuing a PhD. This is followed by an illustration of the challenges experienced in holding major administrative positions and how a display of commitment increases visibility and bolsters research networking. This chapter also unfolds the secrets to maintaining career-life balance by developing the support system that enables a woman in academia to weave her career trajectory

Developing Rubrics For Performance Based Assessment Through Collaborative Effort

Despite the multiple benefits of performance-based assessment, the biggest challenge is the subjectivity in scoring. Rubrics are recommended to reduce its subjectivity and make scoring more reliable. However, educators tend to shy away from utilizing performance-based assessment due to the challenges faced in designing good rubrics. Collaborative efforts have often been advocated in developing good quality rubrics especially for tertiary level, however how academics from various disciplines can work together have not been dealt sufficiently. This qualitative study was carried out to collaboratively develop oral presentation and written report assessment rubrics that can be used as a guideline for developing task specific rubrics by lecturers across disciplines of study. The first stage involved seven experienced lecturers who met regularly to develop the initial drafts. This was followed by a survey utilising open-ended questionnaire items conducted with 60 lecturers to gather their feedback on the rubrics developed in the first stage. While highlighting the comprehensiveness of the criteria included in the rubrics and its value as a useful point of reference, the respondents suggested improvements on the performance descriptors. The initial draft was further improved based on the feedback and shared at the university level digital platform

Teaching and learning during "Old Normal" and "New Normal": Justifications, modifications, and lessons learnt

Teaching, learning and assessment activities are crucial part of a course delivery in educational institutions. While face-to-face (F2F) teaching remains as an important component of teaching and learning, blended and online learning have grown progressively over the past few years and become an essential part of educational institutions around the globe. In 2020 the need to deliver courses fully online was suddenly amplified by the movement control measures implemented due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has forced the courses which were taught F2F or in a blended manner, to be taught fully online. This sole online teaching approach requires some significant changes to not only the course delivery but also every aspect of teaching and learning

Future Direction of Language Education in Malaysia

Future Direction of Language Education in Malaysia starts by tracing the beginning of language education at tertiary level from the setting up of the Department of Languages in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Malaya in 1966 to the present. The rich past and present experiences are invaluable resources that can be used to chart the future direction of the national language education agenda to produce employable graduates both for the local and global workplaces in line with the objectives of the National Higher Education Strategic Plan (2007). This study compiles and examines a comprehensive database of language programmes pertaining to Languages, Linguistics and Literature offered in the different universities in the country to provide MOHE as well as the public with an overview of the discipline of language encompassing Malay (as the national language), English (as the country’s second language), and other languages. In doing so, the study highlights three main categories of language education in Malaysia i.e. language proficiency courses; language programmes; and programmes for teaching languages as a platform to understand where language programmes stand in the system