Investigating L2 learners’ sociopragmatic development in online asynchronous discussion

Despite a burgeoning research of pragmatics in second language learning, there has been insufficient work on the relations among social variables and speech acts in an online learning context. This study examines the sociopragmatic development of L2 learners through online asynchronous discussion. Participants were 18 undergraduate students who enrolled in a compulsory English course. The subjects took part in a web-based collaborative discussion for four weeks. In the form of computer-mediated discourse, the learners’ speech acts were analysed statistically. Social variables which are gender and familiarity between participants were identified and discussed. The descriptive findings indicate that social variables were related to certain online speech acts. Regression analysis however shows that gender and familiarity were not significant predictors of L2 learners’ online utterances. It was found that more proficient L2 learners assisted less proficient peers through active participation and employment of myriad speech acts. Results also suggest that the use of specific utterances affects a learner’s role in the organisational hierarchy of online discussion. This study suggests pedagogical implications for the L2 learners’ acquisition of sociopragmatic competence through online peer collaboration

Giving voice to students and teacher: Uncovering collaboration difficulties and coping strategies in asynchronous online discussion

Asynchronous online discussions such as forums, social networking sites and wikis have been widely used in various educational institutions. Some even utilise asynchronous online discussion as assessment of coursework. It is indicated in numerous studies that asynchronous online discussion can improve student-student or student-teacher interactions in ESL learning. Nevertheless, little attention is paid to the voices of the participants. Using narratives, this paper explores students' and teacher's collaboration difficulties and coping strategies in asynchronous online discussion. Participants include a university lecturer who teaches English for Specific Academic Purposes and three undergraduate students who major in Accounting, Finance and Business Studies, ranging from intermediate to advanced proficiency in English. The subjects took part in asynchronous online discussion for four weeks. Focus group interview and one on one interview were conducted. The narratives have implications for the design and implementation of asynchronous online discussion in ESL classroom

Correspondence or discrepancy?:A multi-method examination of internationalisation agendas in Malaysian private higher education

Internationalisation has become a central agenda in higher education sectors around the world. Malaysia, where this research is conducted, represents a growing world education hub, where there are more than 40 private universities which has led to a growing international student population. As non-government sponsored institutions, Malaysian private universities have a higher degree of autonomy in expanding their internationalisation agendas; they are able to establish more partnerships, recruit international talents, and grow international student markets without imposed limitations. Thus, the aim of this study is to examine the extent to which internationalisation legislation, policy and practice result in a relation of the correspondence or discrepancy in Malaysian private universities. It is also to explore the multiple factors that interact and influence the process of internationalising private tertiary institutions in Malaysia. The findings of this research can assist the stakeholders of private higher education to make informed decisions about how to effectively include an international dimension into the processes of policy making and practice. To elucidate this relationship the study employs a mixed methods approach combining textual analyses and qualitative interviews. First, 6 legislative texts which relate directly to private higher education internationalisation were analysed, followed by the interviews with 20 Senior Management Leaders (SMLs) from 4 Malaysian private universities. It is through the triangulation of data that an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon of internationalisation in Malaysian private higher education emerges. Theoretically, the thesis employs a synthesis of Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice, and Engeström’s activity theory. It is argued here that SMLs interactions with legislation, policy and practice, reveal the centrality of strong habitus at the organisational level of the university. This manifests in individualised and institutionally-specific internationalisation policies, which then must interact and align with government legislation. The textual findings indicate that legislation has granted the private university with a higher degree of autonomy in developing its power hierarchy and habitus geared towards internationalisation. The increasing self-governance of the private higher education field has allowed negotiations between the SMLs and the governmental authority in aligning the university internationalisation policy and practice with legislation. This advocates Engeström’s notion of knotworking in developing the SMLs’ and the governmental authority’s stable and institutionalised activity systems, and maintaining the power balance between both for implementing individualised internationalisation policies. The fierce local and international competitions between private universities have increased their motivations to individualise their internationalisation policies, for sustaining growth into the future. The discrepancy between legislation, internationalisation policy and practice is due to the strict legislative control on specific internationalisation areas such as accreditation and student autonomy, which impedes knotworking between the activity systems of the SMLs and the governmental authority. It results in the SMLs’ disempowerment, procrastination, negligence and eventually abandonment of realising an important internationalisation strategy. Both interacting activity systems have to address tension and disagreements, derived from their individual agenda of internationalisation, in order to establish the common internationalisation objective

Exploring the use of Facebook in the classroom: A Malaysia case study

With the evolution of social media, including major social networking sites that came into existence in the 21st century, social media has burgeoned into one of the most used channels of communication in the society. As it becomes well recognised for its potential as a social communication channel, recent years have witnessed an increased interest of using social media in higher education. The Social Media Survey 2013 by Pearson shows that 41% of higher education faculty in the U.S. population has use social media in teaching in 2013 compared to 34% of them using it in 2012. The survey results also show the increase use of social media for teaching by educators and faculty professionals because they see the potential in applying and integrating social media technology to their teaching. Many higher education institutions and educators are now finding themselves expected to catch up with the world of social media applications and social media users. This creates a growing phenomenon for the educational use of social media to create, engage, and share existing or newly produced information between lecturers and students and among students. However, the use of social media technologies in higher education is not an easy and straightforward process. Some educators perceived social media tool as an effective educational platform, some perceived that it was not useful at all. Some claimed that it allows them to make the classes more interactive, and some stated that the use of social media can help or hinder the achievement of student learning outcomes. Although there is a growing body of empirical research on the use of social media in higher education in the developed countries, there is not abundance in literature in Malaysia context. This study aims to examine the educational use of Facebook by lecturers and students in a private university in the Klang Valley, Malaysia, and to gauge their attitude towards adopting Facebook in the classroom. The research objectives include 1) investigating the use of Facebook for teaching and learning as well as a communication tool between lecturers and students, and 2) exploring the perception of lecturers and students on the usefulness and ease of use of Facebook in the classroom. Using both qualitative and quantitative research methods, this study will achieve two objectives set and the outcome will provides useful insights for academics interested in using social networking sites for teaching and learning and for researchers interested in pursuing social media in higher education research

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

GIVING VOICE TO STUDENTS AND TEACHER: UNCOVERING COLLABORATION DIFFICULTIES AND COPING STRATEGIES IN ASYNCHRONOUS ONLINE DISCUSSION

ABSTRACT Asynchronous online discussions such as forums, social networking sites and wikis have been widely used in various educational institutions. Some even utilise asynchronous online discussion as assessment of coursework. It is indicated in numerous studies that asynchronous online discussion can improve student-student or student-teacher interactions in ESL learning. Nevertheless, little attention is paid to the voices of the participants. Using narratives, this paper explores students' and teacher's collaboration difficulties and coping strategies in asynchronous online discussion. Participants include a university lecturer who teaches English for Specific Academic Purposes and three undergraduate students who major in Accounting, Finance and Business Studies, ranging from intermediate to advanced proficiency in English. The subjects took part in asynchronous online discussion for four weeks. Focus group interview and one on one interview were conducted. The narratives have implications for the design and implementation of asynchronous online discussion in ESL classroom