Search

This paper presents the outcome of the bibliometrics analysis of research sourced from the Web of Science collection. A research evolution, hotspots of peer instruction, and potential topics using bibliometrics to visualize related research from 1971 to 2022 was conducted, using CiteSpace to analyze keywords co-occurrence, time zone, burst detection and strategic diagram. Six themes emerged: competence, technology, outcome, participation, students' ability, and others. Among them, benefits to students, such as improving students' ability, confidence, and learning performance are the hotspots. Teachers' perspectives, exploration of the implementation model, students' attitudes, motivation, demands, and cognition are potential topics for future research.

To date, plagiarism continues to be a widespread problem in higher education. Deemed to be endemic, researchers continue to examine various aspects of plagiarism, including students' perception, practices, attitudes and reasons for plagiarism, in addressing this growing concern. Most studies, however, tend to examine these aspects independently. This paper reports on a study that examined both the students' attitudes and reasons for plagiarism, particularly among the Technical and Non-Technical programme students. A questionnaire was administered to 120 students, i.e. 60 each from each programme to gather quantitative data on their attitudes and reasons for plagiarising. The study found that students in both groups hold negative attitudes towards plagiarism. They deem it synonymous to cheating in final examinations and advocate severe penalty to offenders who submit free downloaded or purchased articles. However, they disagree on being penalised for permitting their peers to plagiarise their work. Significant differences were found for the latter two attitudes between the groups. Albeit, disfavouring plagiarism, the two most cited reasons that compel students in both groups to plagiarise are their self-inadequacy in writing skills and poor time management, followed by the temptation and opportunity to plagiarise from the internet and to cope with the institutional load. With an understanding of these variables, all parties will be able to make more informed decisions in addressing this malpractice and upholding academic integrity.

Malaysia government has called for schools and parents to collaborate in nurturing the culture of reading among children, as there is no formalised programme for a more active involvement of parents in academic matters. Based on the positive results of school-home partnership of past studies, this study proposed a formalised partnership, i.e. the Smart Partnership in Reading in English (SPIRE) project. The six month project aimed to foster a partnership among the teacher, parents and children in an English storybook reading programme. It involved 25 multiracial five year old children, 25 parents and a class teacher. The parents, in partnership, with the teacher scaffold the children's reading development by reading storybooks to the children at home. Qualitative data gathered via interviews, teacher journals and home visits showed the children largely benefited from the teacher and parents collaboration. The outcome of the study was the formation of two levels of partnerships, firstly, the formation of a teacher-parent partnership, where the teacher scaffolds the parents, who in turn scaffold the children's development of reading skills at home. Secondly, the family partnership, where all family members, including extended family members were involved in scaffolding the children's reading development. This partnership also positively influenced the other children and teachers beyond the participating group. Another pertinent outcome was a clear link between the levels of partnership and the children's reading progress. The closer the parents worked with the teacher, the better was the children's reading progress. Similar partnership can also leave conventional splits in EFL context in the past and genuine sharing of responsibilities for EFL literacy development in the future.

Realising the clear dichotomy between schools and homes, the Malaysia government has now turned its attention to stakeholders and called for an increase involvement of parents, who are critical in transforming the education system. However, a clear line of demarcation continues to exist between the two prime educators of young children. Schools have yet to fully embrace the concept of active parental involvement, particularly in academic matters and have yet to design formalised programmes that provide avenues for active parental involvement. The six month Smart Partnership in Reading in English (SPIRE) formalised programme, which created a platform for non-native parents to play a more active role in developing early literacy skills in young children, particularly, reading skills in English language, was explored as an option. 25 non-native five year old children, 25 parents and the class teacher were involved in the programme. A rich ESL literacy environment was created both at school and homes by making a wide range of English storybooks and multimedia materials available for the children to be taken home. The parent-teacher partnership scaffold the children's reading development. The teacher reads storybooks in school and the parents at home. Qualitative data gathered via interviews, home visits, meetings and informal conference provided evidence for parents' positive attitudes towards reading English storybooks and towards being involved in their child's reading development, a positive link between levels of parental involvement and reading development, and the plausibility of involving non-native parents through a formalised reading programme. The SPIRE programme explored in the Malaysian context can also be adopted in non English speaking countries for similar purposes.

Vocabulary is a fundamental requirement of language acquisition, and its competence enables independent reading and effective language acquisition. Effective language use requires adequate level of vocabulary knowledge; therefore, efforts must be made to identify students' vocabulary base for greater efficiency and competency in the language. Students with limited vocabulary size may fail to comprehend the contents of the reading materials and their learning may be impaired. This study had aimed to address this concern and sets out to examine the vocabulary knowledge, i.e. in terms of vocabulary level and size of undergraduates at a private university in Malaysia, where English is the medium of instruction. 120 first year undergraduates from three academic programs, who participated in this study, sat for the Nation and Laufer's (1999), Version A of Productive Vocabulary Levels Test, which is recommended and used for diagnostic purposes. The findings show that almost none of the students have acquired the vocabulary required at UWL, and most of them managed to acquire only a 2000 word level at Level A. At UWL, a larger proportion fell on the lower scale, implicating that their vocabulary knowledge is insufficient to cope with the reading text and possibly with the studies at the university.

This paper presents a scientometric review of global articles regarding acculturation of international students (AoIS), published from 2003 to 2023 and indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC), to provide a quantifiable snapshot of the field. Bibliographic information was extracted from WoSCC. Refined data were visualized using CiteSpace. Worldwide publications have been increasing continuously since 2013, with a staged development among relevant disciplines. Limited collaborations have been found among countries, institutions, and posting authors, however a gradual trend toward transnational teamwork has been emerging. Research foci mainly concentrate on macro factors of acculturation. Research gaps have also been revealed, as hotspots in recent pedagogical research field have not been adopted in studies of AoIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although a plethora of research evidence highlights positive and significant outcomes of the incorporation of the Graphing Calculator (GC) in mathematics education, its use in the teaching and learning process appears to be limited. The obvious need to revisit the teaching and learning of Probability has resulted in this study, i.e. to incorporate GC in the teaching and learning of Probability, specifically on the issue of attitudes towards learning probability. The objective is to examine the effectiveness of GC interactive learning, particularly on students' attitudes towards Probability. A total of 65 foundation students participated in this study; 32 students in the experimental group and 33 in the control group. The teaching approaches varied between the groups. While the experimental group experienced the GC approach, the control group encountered the conventional teaching approach of chalk and talk. Students' attitude towards learning probability was assessed using the Probability Attitude Inventory (PAI), was administered prior to and after the study. The results show significantly difference in the improved attitude towards Probability between the groups, particularly in terms of usefulness of Probability, interest in Probability and self-concept in Probability. This study provides evidence that learning Probability with GCs benefits students. (Contains 8 tables and 9 figures.)

Second language development could be achieved through various teaching or learning processes; however, employing multimedia has recently intruded the process in easing or complicating manners. This study has focused on the effectiveness of English subtitles on the EFL learner's vocabulary learning. The participants were 92 Iranian degree university students studying Translation at Islamic Azad University of Mashhad, Iran. Having set two homogenized groups on the basis of their English language proficiency level, each was randomly assigned to be control and treatment groups. They were given two different instructions, one practicing instructional video episodes with subtitles and the other without subtitles. Their vocabulary learning was tested by a Content Specific Test (CST). The mean scores of the two groups were compared through a t-test. The findings illustrated that participants viewing the videos with subtitles could obtain a significantly higher mean score of the CST vocabulary tests than that of the ones who viewed the videos without subtitles. The findings of this research can get educators well informed of the effectiveness of subtitles on EFL learners' better vocabulary learning. (Contains 4 tables.)

Focuses on young nonnative children's storybook experiences and their attitude toward reading. Argues that motivating young nonnative children to read in the early years is crucial in developing positive attitudes towards reading and subsequently in laying the foundation of English-as-a-Second-Language literacy development. (VWL)

Aim/Purpose: The aim of this paper is to present a systematic review of studies conducted on mobile-assisted task-based learning between 2013 and 2022. The primary objectives of the review are to elicit educational and learning contexts, research areas and foci, research trends, methodologies, data collection techniques, mobile technology used, learning outcomes, and issues in mobile-assisted task-based learning. Background: Conventional task-based learning has evolved over the last decade with numerous researchers incorporating various mobile technologies and devices to enhance the task-based approach. This paper presents a systematic review of taskbased learning, specifically with the adoption of the mobile-assisted method in delivering tasks. Methodology: To provide viable discussions and maintain the accuracy of the review, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (Liberati et al., 2009) protocol items were adhered to. The papers for review were sourced from ISI Web of Science within the last decade from 2013 to 2022. The outcome of screening based on the inclusive and exclusive criteria as well as from the backward search resulted in 16 papers out of 276 papers that were eventually reviewed and analyzed. Contribution: This study is of significant value, especially during the post-pandemic period, as mobile task-based learning provides for flexibility and portability, and to date, no systematic reviews have been conducted specifically on mobile-assisted taskbased learning in the last decade. This review looked at the study characteristics, educational and learning contexts, research areas and research foci, research trends, methodologies, data collection techniques, mobile technology used, learning outcomes, and issues in the papers on mobile-assisted task-based learning. In addition to attributing to the existing body of knowledge, this paper provides insights for researchers, educators, as well as mobile technology developers for consideration. Findings: Major Findings are that all papers are on language learning, with English as a foreign language being the most frequently researched area, and most of the studies are conducted in higher education contexts. Informal learning has become a critical learning setting, and language proficiency and participant perceptions are the two major foci. In addition, no studies have been found to combine mobile learning and social media platforms together to promote language acquisition. Recommendations for Practitioners: This systematic review provides practitioners with an overview of mobile technologies that have been found to be effective in the task-based approach for different educational levels and language skills. These effective mobile technologies could be considered for adoption in their respective contexts. Recommendations for Researchers: For researchers, the time frame for a systematic review could be expanded to increase the number of papers for review. In addition, to ensure the comprehensiveness of findings, big data analysis software could be employed to analyze the research foci, research trends, and research shifts. Additional databases could be added for more extensive review. Impact on Society: The research Findings of this paper can provide benefits for researchers, educators, and mobile technology developers for them to collaboratively promote the development of mobile-assisted task-based learning. Future Research: Future researchers could conduct in-depth empirical studies on mobile seamless learning, research with tasks that are designed based on learners' needs analysis and explore cognitive load as well as learning anxiety which are not extensively researched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiethnic groups coexist in a typical Malaysian university setting. Cultural patterns are expressed through communication facilitating better understanding between diverse cultural groups. Intercultural communication competence based on ethnicity is explained by employing structural equation modelling using Barrett and colleagues' (2013) indicators of attitude, knowledge and skills. These three constructs are hypothesized to explain intercultural communication competence and its effect on well-being and performance. Purposive sampling via a self-administered survey involved 288 Malaysian educators from higher education. The findings confirm that both endogenous constructs -- well-being and team performance -- can be used as predictive factors to assess intercultural communication competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]