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This study explored the psychometric properties of a locally developed information skills test for youth students in Malaysia using Rasch analysis. The test was a combination of 24 structured and multiple choice items with a 4-point grading scale. The test was administered to 72 technical college students and 139 secondary school students. The data from the test were fitted to the Rasch partial credit model using the Winsteps program in which the unidimensionality, reliability and person-item distribution map of the test were examined. The analysis showed all 24 items meet the Rasch model expectation and thus have a potential in assessing information skills of youth students in Malaysia. The findings showed that Rasch analysis could help researchers to refine the developed test in a systematic and informed manner.

English for General Purposes (EGP) is a foundation course which should be taken by all the undergraduate students at the University of Tabriz, Iran. However, the EGP course cannot meet the students' objectives and needs. Evidently, it has some shortcoming and the results of the study indicate that it not only has lost its credibility but also has failed to achieve its goals. This study strives to investigate the different dimensions of this course in order to come up with some solutions to its betterment. The participants consist of current and ex-students, language and subject instructors. The result of the study indicates that there are many factors which are involved in decreasing the quality of the EGP course. The goals of the EGP course need to be determined and redefined. It is hoped that this research could shed some fresh light on the betterment and modification of this course.

This study investigates cognitive and metacognitive strategies in learning oral Arabic among students at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia. The concept of these strategies was derived from the self-regulated learning framework, which consists of five components, namely rehearsal, elaboration, organization, critical thinking, and metacognitive strategies. The purposes of this study are to investigate the level of cognitive and metacognitive strategies used (1) among UiTM students; (2) between students with different prior experiences, namely, some of them had an experience of 5 years in learning Arabic in secondary school (abbreviated by SWE) and some of them did not have any experience at all (abbreviated by SNE); (3) between students of different gender; and (4) between students with the interaction of different gender and prior experience. The sample of this study consists of 183 students and employs a questionnaire adapted from the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). The study revealed that (1) all UiTM students used cognitive and metacognitive strategies at a moderate level; (2) SWE scored significantly higher than SNE in all five components of cognitive and metacognitive strategies; (3) females scored significantly higher than males in rehearsal, organization, and metacognitive strategies; and (4) there were no statistically significant differences noted in all components between students with the interaction of prior experience and gender. This study had some classroom implications. It suggested that some improvement and changes in learning oral Arabic should be made in terms of selecting learning materials, implementing oral Arabic activities, and learning tasks, which will stimulate the use of all strategies, as well as conducting proficiency tests instead of achievement tests. Students should also be exposed to the learning techniques which used all these strategies extensively and collaborative activities may be carried out among students with mixed prior experience and gender. (Contains 5 tables.)

The Arabic course at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia is an elective offered to first degree students. The objectives of this study are to investigate (1) the level of oral Arabic practice among UiTM students, (2) the correlation between oral Arabic practice and resource management strategies which consist of four sub components, namely, time and environment strategy, effort regulation strategy, help seeking strategy and peer learning strategy, and (3) the differences in the use of resource management strategies among students with different level of oral Arabic practice. This is a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative study using an adapted questionnaire of selfregulated learning strategies and interviews with students. The quantitative data were collected from 455 samples using the stratified random sampling technique. The study found that (1) students used moderately oral Arabic, and their practice outside the classroom was lower than inside the classroom, (2) there were significant correlations between oral Arabic practice and the use of peer learning strategy as well as time and study management strategy, and (3) there were significant differences in the use of peer learning strategy among students with different level of oral Arabic practice. This study suggests that the use of peer learning strategy as well as time and study management strategy have to be increased in order to increase the oral Arabic practice among students, such implementing collaborative grouping activities and using peer assistants which are officially selected among students themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arabic course at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia is an elective course offered to first degree students. The objective of this study is to evaluate the use of learning materials in the context of learning oral Arabic at UiTM. It is a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative study using questionnaires, interviews and classroom observations. For quantitative data, stratified random sampling technique was used involving 455 students and 48 course lecturers while for qualitative data, 13 interviews with students, 8 interviews with subject lecturers and 12 classroom observations were engaged. The study found that the textbooks were the only learning material that had been highly used compared to other materials, showing that learning was primarily based on the textbooks. This study suggests some improvements in the use of learning materials such as to use authentic materials through computer and Internet. The textbooks have to be used as a guide and not as a final objective of learning. The use of learning materials has to support students' interest, their needs and motivation. They also have to be given freedom to select materials according to their needs and interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arabic course at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia is an elective offered to first degree students. This study is aimed to investigate the use of peer learning strategy among students in learning oral Arabic at UiTM. It is a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative study using a questionnaire adapted from The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and interviews. The quantitative data were collected from 445 samples using the stratified random sampling technique. Meanwhile, the qualitative data were collected by conducting 13 interview sessions with students. Overall, the study found that the use of this strategy among students was high. Further investigations on subcomponents of this strategy found that it was highly used in grouping activities. However, the level of students' readiness to provide explanations and to spend their time to discuss the course subjects during group discussions was moderate. This study suggested some improvements in learning oral Arabic in UiTM such as using peer assistants which could be officially selected among students themselves in learning oral Arabic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arabic course in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia is an elective course offered to first degree students. The objective of this study was to investigate students' test anxiety in learning oral Arabic at UiTM. It was a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative study using a self-regulated learning questionnaire adapted from The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and interviews. For quantitative data, the disproportionate stratified random sampling technique was used involving 445 samples while for qualitative data, 13 interviews with students were engaged. The study found that students' test anxiety was moderate. However, cognitive part was found to be at a high level and higher than emotional part which was moderate. Through interviews, the study also identified some reasons that contribute to students' test anxiety. This study had some classroom implications. It suggested some learning practices to overcome test anxiety among students in learning oral Arabic cognitively and emotionally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing teaching and learning materials is one of the ways to improve the pedagogical approaches in today's diverse classroom. Traditionally, teachers prefer to develop materials using the paper-based concept rather than an ICT-based one. However, with global changes, paper-based materials have gradually lost its charm and the focus is more on the promoting of ICT-based materials. The purpose of this study is to develop and evaluate the usability of a web-based learning resource for the English Literature Component for secondary school students. This article reports on end-user's perceptions of the quality and importance of the interface of a prototype of the English literature website. A Participatory Design approach which involved four experienced teachers and three students was employed to evaluate the website interface. Questionnaire of Usability Evaluation of Website (QUEW) was adapted for this evaluation process. Results of this formative evaluation process show that almost all aspects categorized as the interface easiness and the website interface displays are considered most important by the end-users. The feedback and comments given by the end-users throughout the process of improving this web-based learning resource helped the researchers to make improvements on the development of the prototype [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to investigate the control of learning beliefs among students of Arabic as a Third Language Course in learning oral Arabic at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Shah Alam. This is a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative study using a questionnaire adapted from The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and interviews. Quantitatively, a number of 297 samples is selected using the stratified random sampling technique and quantitatively, 21 interviews with students and subject lecturers are engaged. It was found that students' control of learning beliefs was high. Therefore, this study recommends that in learning oral Arabic, activities and learning practices which can stimulate students' autonomy need to be carried out intensively in order to build students' control of learning beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Arabic course at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Malaysia is an elective offered to first degree students. The objective of this study was to investigate students' self-efficacy in learning oral Arabic at UiTM. It was a mixed method of quantitative and qualitative study using a questionnaire adapted from The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) and interviews. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS 17, involving 445 samples which were chosen by using the stratified random sampling technique. Qualitative data were analysed using NVIVO7 engaging 13 interviews with students. The study found that, overall; the level of self-efficacy among the students was high. Further investigation found that self-efficacy towards success in the oral Arabic course in UiTM was high while self-efficacy towards mastering oral Arabic in general was moderate. This study suggests that the concept of self-efficacy should be implemented and nurtured among students and it should be in line with their different abilities in oral Arabic. On the other hand, authentic learning materials should also be used in learning in order to become an ultimate benchmark in learning oral Arabic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study which examined the readiness and perception of students towards the use of mobile technologies in learning the English language. The study included 235 students in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, who were randomly selected to answer an adapted questionnaire. Study authors concluded that teachers can utilize mobile technologies in teaching the English language literature.

Students' attitude towards language learning has been identified to influence the learning process. This study investigated students' attitude towards the learning of oral Arabic in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) which includes two aspects, attitude towards the teaching of the language and attitude towards the language itself. The objective of the study is to explore students' attitude from the cognitive, affective and conative perspectives. This is a qualitative study engaging 21 series of interviews, comprising 13 series of interviews with students and 8 with subject lecturers. The selection of students took into consideration their prior experience in learning Arabic and the faculty clusters they belonged to. The acquired interview data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using NVIVO7 software in order to establish the relevant themes. The study found that cognitively, all students affirmed to the importance of the oral Arabic even though they prioritized other subjects. Students' perception towards the difficulty of learning oral Arabic depends on their prior knowledge and experience. Affectively, all students expressed their positive attitude towards learning oral Arabic, except for some who had no foundation of the language expressed their uneasiness, learning in classess where students are of mixed abilities. Conatively, the students had shown their resilience to the learning and would like to continue doing so in the future. This study recommends that the teaching approach used should be appropriate to the students' prior knowledge and experience. Appropriate approach is therefore vital in moulding students' behaviour which consequently effects their performance in learning oral Arabic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the English Language Learning (ELL) beliefs of the English as a Second Language (ESL) learners at the National University of Malaysia. It investigated the learners' views as related to the nature of language learning, difficulty of language learning and language learning aptitude. This investigation compared the responses obtained from the male and female subjects. A survey instrument known as Beliefs About Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) developed by Horwitz (1987) was adapted and utilized to gather the data. The data were collected from the students who took a proficiency course at the university. The data were processed using an SPSS program in which t-test was performed to examine the learners' responses. The findings revealed that there were statistically significant differences between male and female participants with respect to most of the question items related to the learners' beliefs about ELL. Educationists would be provided with better understanding about students' beliefs which guide their behaviour because these could affect students' ELL achievements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaysia embarked on the use of English as a medium of instruction for the teaching of Science (and also Mathematics) in January 2003. One of the aims was to upgrade the English language proficiency of Malaysian students. Several problems and challenges have been encountered by implementers and educators since then. One of the problems is the use of the existing computer-based science materials. Apart from the obvious and great need for more science materials, new materials need to be designed to fulfill the needs of the science students who are not competent in the English language and also the needs of the science teachers who are also lacking in the knowledge of the English language. This study examined the perceptions of the science teachers in Malaysia concerning the use of computer-based materials provided by the Ministry of Education. The findings were presented in terms of the clarity and suitability of the content, English language used, presentation of content materials, and adequacy of materials and facilities. Based on the results, several suggestions are put forward so that a more systematic approach could be employed in designing better computer-based materials for the teachers and students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of internet and web technologies have significantly assisted teachers and students in the process teaching and learning. Based on the principle of Ma•la¯ah Mursalah (consideration of public interest) in the Islamic Jurisprudence, the use of these technologies are now widely accepted and used by Muslim educators. The study's aim was to examine the application Islamic web sites in the process of teaching and learning of Islamic Education. The main focus of this survey was on six main aspects of the web sites for teaching and learning process, i.e. appropriateness of content, application of multi media, cognitive development, elements of constructivism, flexibility in teaching and learning and self learning. Based on the teachers' evaluations and responses towards the contents of the web sites, the researcher selected ten Islamic web sites which were consistent with the contents of Islamic Education subject at the secondary school level. Then, by using standard forms of evaluation, 20 students from various back ground were selected to evaluate all the web sites. The study found that most of the web sites were useful for the students in the process of teaching and learning and they could use the web sites for various purposes of teaching and learning. From the analysis, it was found that four web sites had high means (4.06-3.68) and the other six web sites were at the moderate level (3.24-3.57). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the reasons that keep Malaysian university students from participating in sport activities during their leisure time. The three-dimensional leisure constraints model was used as the theoretical framework for the study. The sample consisted of 303 students from University Putra Malaysia using survey instruments based on Crawford and Godbey's (1987) Leisure Constraints Model. The instrument is designed to measure three types of constraints to sport participation: (1) structural, (2) interpersonal and (3) intrapersonal. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-tests and ANOVA. The results suggest the subjects were constrained most by structural factors such as lack of information about existing sport activities and facilities, inconvenient facility location and inconvenient facility operating hours. Female students experienced higher levels of structural and intrapersonal constraints than their male counterparts. Implications of the findings for sport administrators were given to overcome some constraints, and increase student's participation in sport activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the perceptions of the low achieving students about target language learning (TLL) in a Malaysian university. The target language is the English language which is the second most important language. This research analysed the views that these learners held of their TLL experiences as related to their own individual characteristics. Indepth interviews were conducted and the data were analysed using Strauss and Corbin's (1990) coding paradigm: open coding and axial coding. The findings were presented in terms of personality traits, language aptitude, high anxiety and insufficient and inappropriate strategies. Based on the results, several suggestions are put forward so that a more systematic approach could be employed to enhance the target language attainment of the low achievers [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the aims of the Malaysian education system is to be the centre of excellent education in the region in the twenty-first century. The legislative amendments of the University College Act 1997 resulted in the increase of private colleges. These colleges do not only attract Malaysians but also international students. The main reason for the increase is due to the use of English as the medium of instruction. At Inti College Malaysia, the international students have been exhibiting poor performance in the English language. This study investigated the reasons as to why these international students did not perform well in English. It addressed the students' attitudes towards Acrolect Malaysian English and their motivation to learn the language. Survey questionnaires were utilized to gather the data from the English Improvement Programme students. The findings revealed that the students showed negative attitudes towards Acrolect Malaysian English. The preferred models were the native English speaker models, for instance Standard American English and Standard British English. In terms of motivation, the students were instrumentally motivated than integratively motivated. It was also found that despite high motivational intensity or effort, students' language performance was poor. This shows that high degree of effort alone without language desire or positive attitude is not sufficient for language learning success. In order to overcome the problem of students' negative attitudes, it is suggested that the administrators and lecturers emphasize the native speakers' variety in the classroom. The Acrolect Malaysian English should also be made known to students through informal lessons such as during drama practices. This is important because these students are exposed to Acrolect Malaysian English in their dealings with officers from the various administrative departments at Inti College. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]