This research reports on a mixed method study with the aim to discover the employment of vocabulary learning strategies by students majoring in engineering course in learning technical vocabulary which is in this context, the engineering terminologies. This research adopted Explicit Vocabulary Learning Theory by Ellis (1994) which proposed that there are usage of learning strategies in the process of learning word meanings. Five vocabulary learning strategies taxonomies were employed in this study which were developed by Schmitt (1994) which are determination, social, memory, cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Each taxonomy has a few strategies that are developed specifically according to the type of strategies used. All five taxonomies of vocabulary learning strategies were compared to the students’ field of study, year of study and English proficiency level. Previous studies highlighted that there were differences found in the use of strategies among learners in comparison to their characteristics.
It is imperative in the era of industry 4.0 for scholars including engineers and practitioners to communicate effectively through mastering technical vocabulary in their specializations. The use of strategies in learning vocabulary has been proven to have a significant impact on the process of learning vocabulary. Nevertheless, it was found that advance learning is insufficient, and the digitization era requires more words to be mastered to have clear communication. Hence, this research aims to discover the strategies used among engineering majors in learning engineering terminology. This research employed mixed methods consisting of both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The instruments of this research are, a vocabulary learning strategies questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The questionnaires were administered to 150 students majoring in engineering from five engineering clusters. This research found that engineering students employed determination and metacognitive strategies most frequently. The most frequently used strategy was found to be listening and watching English media while the least frequently used strategy was keeping a vocabulary notebook. Findings show that future communication should focus on interactivity of the media used to increase the proficiency of technical vocabulary and the Malaysian government can drive industry 4.0 though strategies identified in this study.
Language politeness is a critical element to be incorporated in communication for its worth across social status, power, or position. In this study, WhatsApp text conversations between students and lecturers were utilised in analysing its politeness strategies used by the students. Purposive sampling which involved WhatsApp texts from two classes of English for Oral Presentation (ELC590) subject was conducted and text messages from thirty (30) students were selected. The text messages were then analysed using descriptive qualitative and quantitative analysis studies according to the four (4) politeness sub-strategies by Brown and Levinson (1987). All four (4) types of language politeness strategies were observed in the respondents' texts. Negative politeness strategy is the highest strategy used among respondents, followed by bald-on, positive politeness, and lastly off-record strategies. Based on the results, a number of respondents were not communicatively competent as some of the text messages contained Face-threatening Acts (FTA) that would damage the lecturers' face and be considered as impolite thus breaking down effective communication. Hence, it is recommended that other elements could be explored in future research such as time, use of emoji, punctuation or capitalisation. The findings would result in better understanding of language politeness strategies used in students' communication with lecturers.
When the COVID-19 pandemic caused school closures and online teaching, the issue of online testing and evaluation almost took a back seat as many were focusing on the teaching and learning approaches, material preparations and students-teachers-content connectivism first. This has arrived at a scenario where teachers were not equipped with plagiarism-proof testing approaches, methods to curb 'behind the scenes' discussion while taking tests, or even the right number to apply the online testing. A delayed magnitude of measures has been undertaken to solve these issues. The efforts include resorting to online plagiarism software, mark deduction for any answers that seemed similar and mandatory multiple tests. The present paper seeks to discuss these issues and challenges faced by English as a second/foreign language (ESL/FL) teachers and learners in undertaking testing and evaluation during the online open learning period. This exploratory study adopts a non-rigorous PRISMA-SLR method in filtering articles for data selection. The targeted open source was the Google Scholar. Discussion suggests that the issues can be solved by adopting humanising approaches and implementing multiple means to ensure testing and evaluation during the online open learning were handled in a professional manner. The paper suggests more studies to be conducted in relation to the topic.
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