The Use of Modals in Malaysian ESL Learners’ Writing

This research investigated Malaysian ESL learners’ use of modals in two written tasks, which were obtained from the EMAS Corpus. The aim of the study was to investigate: (1) the distribution of modals used in the students’ writing, (2) the functions depicted by the modals used, (3) if the modals used were accurate syntactically and semantically, (4) if students were using other alternatives in instances where modals were absent or inappropriately used, and (5) if students’ mastery of the use of modals and the functions in their writing reflect their ability in using modals taught to them according to those stipulated in the KBSR/KBSM syllabus (MoE, 2003). This was addressed in six research questions. The research design comprised a qualitative technique through discourse analysis supplemented with some descriptive statistics derived from a concordancer. The concordancer identified modals used by the students at all the three different levels. The research findings showed that the modals can, could and their negated forms were the modals that were most frequently used by these students. Two modals that were not stipulated in the KBSR/KBSM syllabus, would and shall, were also found in the essays. The syllabus also indicated varied meanings to the modals, but it was found that students repetitively used only a few of the same modals for these various functions. It was also found that students at the lower level were less competent in using past form modals as compared to those at the higher level. The findings also showed that students’ difficulties in constructing modal structures can be grouped into two categories: (1) modals with inaccurate verb form and (2) modals with no verb but replaced with other words/adjectives. The modals used were found to be reflective of students’ knowledge. Students were uncertain about which modals to use to express modality in their sentences and this could be seen in the inaccuracies at the syntactic and semantic levels. Malaysian English also emerged in the students’ writing. It was also found that ESL learners had adopted ways to overcome their inadequacy in the use of modals and modality of the English language by using simplification features and compensation strategies. It was concluded that there were some inadequacies in the syllabus that could have led to the problems encountered by ESL students. In order to circumvent the problematic grammatical items identified in the study, and to further improve the teaching and learning of modal auxiliary among ESL learners, several recommendations are proposed. Among them is reviewing the syllabus so that the contents of textbooks will be in line with the recommended textbooks used by students and incorporating some pedagogical aspects that will help students in acquiring and using modal verbs appropriately

Ciri-ciri sahsiah bagi kemasukan pelajar ke Maktab Rendah Sains MARA (MRSM) Ulul Albab menurut perspektif pihak pentadbir

Kurikulum Ulul Albab ialah kurikulum pendidikan yang berteraskan kepada tiga elemen iaitu Quranik, Ensiklopedik dan Ijtihadik. Kurikulum ini telah mengubah cara penilaian pelajar yang sebelum ini hanya berpandukan kepada kemajuan akademik semata-mata. Misi utama kurikulum Ulul Albab adalah untuk membentuk sahsiah pelajar melalui pembudayaan Al-Quran. Kemajuan pendidikan pada hari ini tidak hanya berfokus kepada pencapaian akademik pelajar semata-mata, tetapi tahap sahsiah pelajar perlu diukur juga, iaitu bertepatan dengan dasar yang tercatat dalam Falsafah Pendidikan Kebangsaan (FPK) dan Pelan Pembangunan Pendidikan Malaysia. Antara 11 anjakan yang diperkenalkan menerusi PPPM, anjakan ketiga, iaitu melahirkan rakyat yang mampu menghayati nilai dan ini membuktikan bahawa elemen nilai merupakan salah satu aspek yang harus ditekankan ke dalam diri pelajar. Oleh yang demikian, kajian ini dijalankan bagi meninjau ciri-ciri sahsiah yang perlu dimiliki oleh pelajar bagi kemasukan ke Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM) Ulul Albab menurut perspektif pihak pentadbir maktab itu sendiri. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan bahawa terdapat tiga ciri sahsiah yang dipersetujui oleh pentadbir; iaitu pelajar perlu memiliki minat terhadap Al-Quran, perlu agresif dan perlu proaktif. Penentuan sahsiah pelajar adalah sama penting dengan penentuan pencapaian akademik pelajar kerana sahsiah merupakan faktor dalaman yang akan menjadi pendorong kepada persekitaran belajar pelajar

ROLE OF SPECIAL EDUCATION CURRICULUM IN ADJUSTMENT OF PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED CHILDREN IN SOCIETY

The purpose of this study was to identify the role of the special education curriculum in adjustment of physically handicapped children in society. The researcher used self developed questionnaires to collect the data about the problem under investigation. All physically handicapped children of District Lahore were constituted as target population for the study. The physically handicapped children of Special Education School, Lahore were assessable population for the study. Fifty physically handicapped children from Special Education School Lahore were conveniently selected as a sample for the study. Simple descriptive statistical techniques such as mean and percentages were used to analyze the collected data. After careful data analysis the researcher concluded that the special education curriculum may play very vital role in the adjustment of physically handicapped children in society but unfortunately due to lack of resources and infrastructure and lack of teachers trainings that need to involve parents in education and rehabilitation program. Trained and qualified teachers should be appointed in these schools. There is also some lack in the awareness about the importance of social adjustment of physically handicapped children in the society. The researchers identified very important needs, problems, and adjustment problems of physically handicapped children through review of literature and research

A case study of parental involvement in orientation and mobility of visually impaired children in Pakistan

This paper examined on the role of parental involvement in orientation and mobility of visually impaired children (VIC) in Pakistan. It deals with how parents are involved in Orientation and Mobility (O&M) and how they justify their involvement in O&M for their VIC. Literature has seen that Pakistani VIC are lacking parental involvement in their O&M. Such practices of O&M are deemed essential for their independence. Moreover, their O&M practices require proper training. The lack of research on the part of parental involvement in the training of visually impaired population, needs for more consideration in this area, especially in Pakistan (Aziz, 2007). Data was collected through interviews of five parents of visually impaired children. After completing the data collection process, interviews were transcribed verbatim and codes and categories were developed to get emerging themes from data manually using a cross case analysis. The findings of this research would be beneficial for both parents and their visually impaired children in understanding the independence needs of such children. It is hoped that the findings of the study also will help the management of special education to plan and guide their programs to empower the parents and provide them with the significance of their involvement in the practices of O&M for their children. As for the visually impaired children, it is hoped that their independence in the environment would be enhanced with the help of their parental involvement in O&M as O&M is the compulsory subject of the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC). ECC is accepted as the curriculum for VIC internationally, but in Pakistan there is not much focus on ECC rather sighted child's curriculum is adopted for VIC. This research proposes a study to focus ECC application in Pakistan for VIC

Educators’ conception of student assessment and their practices in an institution of education in MARA

Despite existing research on the educators’ conception of student assessment, few studies have attempted to explore this topic among tertiary education system in Malaysia. In response to this gap, this is a concept paper aimed to explore educators’ conception of student assessment and their practices among MARA Professional College lecturers’ (N = 50). Descriptive quantitative method will be used to investigate the lecturers’ conception of student assessment regarding improvement, school accountability, student accountability and irrelevance as well as the relations between different conceptions purposes and their assessment practices. Acquiring further knowledge on assessment will have profound effect on the teachers’ assessment practice. Related organizations should work together in improving the training related to assessment

Guru cemerlang Pendidikan Moral: keperluan menguasai aspek kandungan dalam pengajaran dan pembelajaran Pendidikan Moral dan implikasinya

Guru memainkan peranan yang penting dalam melaksanakan mata pelajaran Pendidikan Moral di sekolah di samping meningkatkan kualiti pencapaian murid. Memandangkan Pendidikan Moral itu sendiri adalah kompleks, maka guru perlu mempunyai pemahaman yang kukuh dan menguasai konsep-konsep asas moral, konsep utama Pendidikan Moral dan isi kandungan Pendidikan Moral itu sendiri sebelum mengajar muridnya. Penguasaan aspek kandungan oleh guru cemerlang Pendidikan Moral adalah sangat penting kerana ia merupakan aspek asas dalam pengajaran dan pembelajaran. Walaupun secara umumnya diketahui guru cemerlang adalah pakar dalam mata pelajaran yang diajar, namun bagi Pendidikan Moral kelonggaran berlaku apabila majoriti guru cemerlang Pendidikan Moral tidak mempunyai pengkhususan dalam mata pelajaran ini. Kertas konsep ini akan menjelaskan tentang kepentingan guru menguasai pengetahuan kandungan dan konsep utama yang wajar difahami oleh guru cemerlang Pendidikan Moral di Malaysia. Perbincangan kertas ini adalah berdasarkan konsep Pendidikan Moral di Malaysia oleh Aroff, teori pengetahuan guru oleh Shulman dan teori sekolah dan perkembangan moral oleh Sugarman yang menyentuh tentang aspek penting bagi seorang guru Pendidikan Moral

Conceptualising Orientation and Mobility Practices within the Expanded Core Curriculum

This paper intends to examine the orientation and mobility practices within the Expanded Core Curriculum The study conceptualises and methodologically sheds light on the practices of orientation and mobility O M within the expanded core curriculum ECC for visually impaired learners O M practices have become significant as these are essential in independence and one of the main components of the expanded core curriculum of visually impaired learners The O M practices are done in the school boundaries by O M experts to facilitate and accommodate visually impaired learners for better independence However owing to these practices but not as part of the expanded core curriculum results are less responsive to visually impaired learner s needs Aziz 2007 Existing research has focused on O M practices which are the integral part of the expanded core curriculum for the independence of visually impaired as most were not conducted to address the O M within the expanded core curriculum for visually impaired learner s Therefore this study attempts to conceptualise the orientation and mobility practices within the expanded core curriculu

Academic expectations of MARA stakeholders on the Ulul Albab curriculum at a MARA Junior Science College

Ulul Albab is an educational programme of integration between the existing programmes in the MARA Junior Science College (MRSM) with the religious school programme including Tahfiz Al-Quran. The MRSM Ulul Albab education programme is designed to produce professional experts, entrepreneurs and technocrats that are well versed in the field of religion that is based on Al-Quran and Sunnah known as the Ulul Albab generation. This study aims to explore stakeholders' expectations on the Ulul Albab programme in MRSM Kota Putra, Besut Terengganu towards students' academic excellence. The methodology used was qualitative in nature in the form of semi-structured interviews conducted with the four MARA stakeholders. Regarding the validity and reliability of data, several techniques were employed such as member checking, rich thick description, clarification of researcher bias, peer review and debriefing, and external audit. The findings from this study indicate that the stakeholders hope that Ulul Albab programme will be able to produce academically excellent students who possess creative and critical thinking skills. Apart from that, the stakeholders also expressed the need towards education that is balanced in both Duniawi (world) and ukhrawi (hereafter)

Rasch analysis and differential item functioning of STEM teachers instructional preparedness instrument for urban and rural teachers

STEM Teachers’ Instructional Preparedness instrument (STEMTIP) was developed in this study with of 40 items and consists of 5 main constructs. Using multistage cluster sampling, 252 teachers in Malaysia was selected as sample of the study. Rasch Model analyses the psychometric properties of the STEMTIP instrument. The results indicate that 40 items of the STEMTIP are well fitted to a latent unidimensional structure, as required by the Rasch Model. There are two items (ELA1 and EVA8) that show a psychometric properties of Differential Item Functioning in STEMTIP concerning school location. Finally, psychometric implications derived from the results of the present study are discussed and suggestions are provided for future investigations

Understanding the parental involvement in promoting an effective orientation and mobility acquisition among visually impaired children within the expanded core curriculum in Lahore, Pakistan

This proposed for a research be carried out towards understanding the parental involvement in promoting an effective orientation and mobility (O&M) acquisition among visually impaired children within the expanded core curriculum in Lahore, Pakistan. Orientation and mobility skills are deemed important in preparing visually impaired children towards their independence. Although O&M skills are considered as one of the main components of the expanded core curriculum for visually impaired children, these skills, however, are not explicitly integrated into the expanded core curriculum. As a result, M&O skills are found less acquired by the visually impaired children in Lahore, Pakistan. Moreover, the literature has also shown that Pakistani visually impaired children are experiencing a lack of parental involvement in their O&M skills acquisition, although it is widely recognized that parental involvement is essential for such skills acquisition. Due to the lack of research on parental involvement in the O&M skills acquisition among visually impaired children in Pakistan, a study, is proposed to be conducted to gain understanding on the matter through interviews with the parents of visually impaired children at two secondary level schools in Lahore, Pakistan. A semi-structured interview strategy will be employed to provide more insights into the roles of parents towards the acquisition of O&M skills among their visually impaired children in Lahore, Pakistan. This proposal further discusses the methodology deemed appropriate for this study