Background and purpose: With rapid global development happening in the world today, the field of education has been awash with various change forces. In an effort to ensure its system is globally competitive, Malaysia has taken a step to align its English language education system to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). However, any change in policy is not without problems and challenges as studies have shown that challenges were inevitable and stakeholders’ buy-in on the new change is necessary. Hence, this study was undertaken to investigate the challenges faced by teachers in implementing the CEFR in Malaysian ESL classrooms, their belief on this new reform and their readiness to implement the CEFR.   Methodology: A mixed-method design was utilized with the use of questionnaire and semi structured interview as means for data collection. 365 English language teachers responded to the questionnaire while 15 English language teachers participated in interview sessions.   Findings: The data revealed five challenges namely teachers’ motivation, materials, time, students’ proficiency level and facilities. Despite facing multiple challenges, all teachers exhibited positive belief towards the adoption of the CEFR. The study also showed that although teachers were emotionally ready to accept the change, their cognitive readiness for change however is dependent upon three important facets namely time, collective effort and adequate materials.   Contributions: The study provides insights into the change in policy involving the CEFR implementation in the Malaysian English language education system which contributes to the scarce literature on the implementation of CEFR.   Keywords:  Policy implementation, challenges in policy change, teachers’ belief, Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), readiness for change.   Cite as: C. Alih, N. A., Abdul Raof, A. H., & Md. Yusof, M. A. (2021). Policy change implementation: The case of the CEFR in Malaysian ESL classrooms.  Journal of Nusantara Studies, 6(2), 296-317. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol6iss2pp296-317

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The recent development in the field of science, technology and commerce has revived the significance of English language teaching and learning in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi educational policies are envisioned to configure the students' communicative competence in English to the demands of the specific professional disciplines as well as the global market. Engineering undergraduates studying at Saudi public universities rely on the Preparatory Year Programme (PYP) to meet their English language needs. However, it seems that no empirical study to date has been conducted to analyse the English language needs of the engineering undergraduates. This study aims at analysing the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) needs of engineering undergraduates studying at a Saudi university. It intends to identify what academic tasks they often carry out in English. The researcher adopted a mixed-methods approach by employing a questionnaire and interviews to collect data from 257 engineering undergraduates and 32 contentsubject teachers. Quantitative data analysis was performed using SPSS, while qualitative data were analysed through NVivo software. The participants' perceptions of target tasks were compared and examined to see if there are significant differences between the groups based on the specialty of department or year of study. Overall, 27 tasks were identified as most frequently performed by undergraduates across all engineering departments at the university. The findings also revealed significant differences in the undergraduates' responses across all four levels of study. The findings suggest incorporating those tasks into the current ESP syllabus which are aligned to the immediate needs of undergraduates of engineering departments.

Acquiring adequate vocabulary knowledge is necessary for English language learners in order to be able to function effectively using the language. The study investigated the English language receptive vocabulary knowledge among Malaysian undergraduates in terms of word levels. The Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) by Schmitt et al., (2001) was employed in order to assess the students’ receptive vocabulary knowledge at five different word levels. The result reveals majority of the students are weak in terms of their receptive vocabulary knowledge and most of them failed to reach the mastery level for all the five word levels; 40 (57%) of the students do not master the 2000 word level, 58 (83%) of the students do not master the 3000 word level, 65 (93%) of the students do not master the 5000 word level, 70 (100%) of the students do not master the 10000 word level and 65 (93%) of the students do not master the academic word level. The findings were useful insights on the English language receptive vocabulary knowledge among Malaysian university students in terms of word levels.