Unsur niat moral (moral intent) dan hubungannya dengan tindakan bermoral (moral action), sering menjadi bahan kajian dalam kalangan ahli psikologi moral. Seseorang individu yang ingin bertindak secara bermoral, perlu: (i) mengenal pasti isu moral yang wujud dalam sesuatu situasi atau konflik yang dihadapi, (ii) memiliki kebolehan untuk mengambil tindakan yang betul dan paling baik dalam menangani konflik yang dihadapi, dan akhirnya (iii) berkeinginan serta berkebolehan untuk bertindak secara bermoral atas keputusan yang diambil, dalam menangani konflik yang dihadapi. Unsur yang dikatakan mendasari aspek kesedaran moral, keputusan moral dan tindakan moral ialah unsur niat moral. Justeru, artikel ini membincangkan hasil kajian tentang potensi Teater Forum sebagai pedagogi pengajaran dalam mencungkil unsur niat moral (moral intent) dalam kalangan murid-murid sekolah. Seramai 18 orang murid perempuan dan lelaki (tiga kumpulan berfokus) dari kelas Pendidikan Moral tingkatan empat telah digu.....

1567 hits

The objective of this study is to determine whether the process approach or the product/ traditional approach is better in teaching first-year undergraduates to write academic texts. Fifty-one students of the University of Selangor had participated in the study. They were divided into Group A and Group B. A pre-test was given prior to the treatment and a post-test after it. For seven weeks, the participants in Group A were taught to write academic texts using the product approach while those in Group B were taught to write academic texts using the process approach. The data collected from the tests was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 19.0. The data from the post-test was also triangulated with the data from the participants’ composing behaviors and the data from the participants’ folders. The results indicate that both the groups A and B show improvements in content, organization, vocabulary, language use, mechanics and overall results. How.....

1471 hits

Perkembangan awal penggunaan teknologi dalam pendidikan kebanyakannya berasaskan kepada anjuran daripada Teori Pembelajaran Behaviorisme dan Kognitivisme, di mana teknologi digunakan untuk mengajar, seolah-olah ia menggantikan tempat guru. Ini bermakna pengetahuan terletak di dalam teknologi dan teknologi mempersembahkan pengetahuan kepada murid. Peranan murid adalah untuk belajar pengetahuan yang dipersembahkan oleh teknologi, sebagaimana mereka mempelajari pengetahuan yang diberikan oleh guru. Aliran Konstruktivisme pula berpendapat penggunaan teknologi dalam pengajaran dan pembelajaran harus berubah dari peranan tradisional teknologi sebagai guru kepada teknologi sebagai rakan di dalam proses pembelajaran. Pelajar harus belajar dengan teknologi, bukannya belajar dari teknologi. Teknologi harus menjadi rakan intelektual pelajar. Dalam kajian ini satu model pengajaran dan pembelajaran berasaskan pandangan Konstruktivisme dibangunkan, iaitu dinamakan Model Pengajaran dan Pembelajaran d.....

1268 hits

In the context of local polytechnics, developing skillful English lecturers is a critical effort. Driven by the demand to produce highly desired graduates for industries, they require supports to stay developed and realise the demand of those industries. Yet, the offered in-service trainings (INSET) of the current system very lightly focus on their real needs. Hence, this study aims to identify the types of INSET that are exactly required by polytechnic English lecturers. A survey was delegated to a random sampling throughout Malaysia to get the related information. An SPSS procedure was run to generate the results. The findings of this exploratory survey are expected to benefit related stakeholders to prepare and offer more relevant courses to English lecturers in the future...

7075 hits

Research into student writing has shown the central role of writing in promoting language acquisition. Written language is seen as a discourse practice that students must gradually learn in their academic endeavour. Writing in a second or foreign language however poses problems to students whose proficiency in the language is still developing. This article reports the result of a qualitative study that examines how participation in content-based project work helps students’ learning. The study is informed by the central premise that views language and literacy learning as situated practices in specific classroom contexts and are acquired as students engage with the subject matter and in specific learning tasks (Zamel & Spack, 2006). Data were collected using focus group interviews, classroom observation and document analysis. Findings of the study indicate that talk around the written text is multilingual and that content-related project work serves as a tool to promote engagement an.....

1108 hits

Teaching reading in English to young six-year-old non-native speakers of English requires a specific approach. Children at this age are best taught to read from the smallest unit of sounds and continue to learn how these sounds are associated with the letters of the alphabets before they embarked into reading words. However, some scholars argue that approaches in teaching young children to read should differ between genders. Gender factor has been widely deliberated in the domain of reading in English among children. This paper addresses the issue of teaching the soundletter association among 6-year-old preschool children. Specifically, it will focus on the gender factor in learning the sound-letter association and blending of those sounds via the use of the synthetic phonics method of reading instruction. We will discuss the method of instruction used in this study and provide evidence based on the findings of a pre and post-test. Our findings indicate that there were no gender differ.....

693 hits

In this study, the researchers hypothesised that teachers’ roles in employing Instructional Language Strategies (ILS) could enhance students’ and teachers’ self-directed language learning skills. An exploratory study was conducted to examine the teachers’ views about teaching English language and their frequency of employment of ILS in their ESL classroom. The eight ESL secondary school teachers were randomly selected from a few schools in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. The study attempts to find out the most frequently employed strategies and how the teachers’ perception determines their choice of strategies. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and were triangulated with the ILS questionnaire adapted from the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). Both qualitative and quantitative analyses of the data were carried out. Description of teachers’ responses and descriptive statistics were used to support the findings. Data revealed that the most freque.....

656 hits

Reading skill becomes the pioneer and the most vital skill at the tertiary level, it is the gateway to every academic achievement. This study analyses the Yemeni EST senior secondary reading curriculum to explore how well this curriculum prepares secondary school level students for reading content area subjects at the tertiary level. The data were collected through document review and classroom observation. The framework of this study was based on a revised model of Sidek (2010) of method analysis of the teaching of reading skill. The findings on the emphasis on reading skill and the level of cognitive demands of reading tasks indicated that reading skill is greatly and explicitly emphasized in the selected curriculum; however, the curriculum partially prepares secondary school students for tertiary reading in terms of the level of cognitive demands of reading tasks. Findings were discussed in terms of improving the effectiveness of EST senior secondary reading textbooks and classroom .....

2926 hits

The present study portrays the realisation of nominalisations in undergraduate students’ written texts. Nominalisation, as one of grammatical metaphors, is defined as the formation of nouns which derive from verbs or adjectives. It is asserted as one of the essential features of academic writing (Hyland, 2004) which even dominates the language of science (Halliday & Martin, 2005). Based on these statements, a research question arises, inquiring about the phenomena of applying nominalisations in students’ texts. This qualitative study was carried out among Polytechnic students majoring in mechanical engineering. The data, resulted by conducting an essay test, are in the forms of texts. This test examined nominalisations applied in students’ texts. To triangulate the data, an interview with some participants was also conducted. After the data were analysed by implementing the framework of nominalising metaphor, proposed by Halliday, three findings resulted. First, the students used.....

569 hits

This article examines the construction of diverse identities in contemporary Malaysian literature. Using one literary text, “Neighbours” by Karim Raslan (1996), the analysis shows that the characters, particularly the ancillary male character, Kassim, possesses diverse identities with ethnic identity being foregrounded over other forms of identity that are based on age, social class, gender and sexuality. However, these other forms of identity exert influence over the realization of the characters’ ethnic identity, thereby reinforcing the idea that social identities do not exist in isolation, but interact with each other in the process of identity formation and expression. This article also discusses the dilemmas and challenges that local writers face in constructing the identities of their characters and their own identities in the process, as well as the implications of using the writers’ works to discuss issues related to identity in the literature classroom...

1167 hits