Studying literature can be challenging for ESL learners. With the new cycle of poems introduced by the Ministry of Education in 2015, the teachers responded with great concerns over how to teach their students, who found poetry difficult and boring. Furthermore, the teachers found poetry less favourable compared to other literary genres. In order to fill the gap of a better understanding of the poems, in more engaging ways, the researchers designed a board game. The compulsory (new) poems for Forms Four and Five were used. 20 students and 40 teachers participated in this study. Data comprised the responses of the students and teachers, to the questionnaire and interview after the game. The game sessions were videotaped. The analysis of the data showed that the participants responded positively to the game. Hence, this game served as a supplementary tool in the teaching and learning of poetry in more engaging ways.
Reading is a fundamental skill in language learning for learners to produce: write and speak the target language. In order to perform successfully in academic and professional settings, learners are required to learn new knowledge by reading and comprehending the written texts extensively and effectively. Nevertheless, poor reading literacy rate, performance and struggling readers are evidently some reading problems among second language learners and to better comprehend learners' difficulties this study explored learners' perceptions on their usage of metacognitive reading strategies. 109 undergraduates of a Malaysian university responded to the survey for this quantitative study. The study found that global reading strategies, problem solving strategies and support reading strategies were employed in reading tasks and the relationships between strategies were strong indicating that planning before reading, monitoring reading progress, solving issues and relying on support or help during reading are strategies used in reading tasks. Thus, this suggests that background knowledge or pre-reading activities and guidance are critical for learners to be able to complete reading activities well.
Public speaking competency is one of the core skills that is essential for personal and professional growth. Students who display effective public speaking skills are able to get their messages across while projecting confidence, clarity, and conviction which enhance their job prospects for future employability. Conversely, students' failure to cope with the stress faced in preparing for public speaking may affect their speaking effectiveness. This comparative case study explored the stress and coping strategies among Japanese and Malaysian undergraduates in two universities to understand the similarities, differences, and patterns across these two groups that share a common focus. Study participants were selected through a purposive sampling technique in which relevant data was collected using semistructured interviews. Data gathered were then analysed thematically to identify the stressors and coping strategies in public speaking across the two groups. Results indicate similar stressors experienced by participants which are external speech stress factors, resource deficit, and anticipatory speech anxiety in public speaking. Personal, social, and academic-oriented strategies were the participants' strategies to cope with the stress. These results suggest that similar stressors are faced by undergraduate students in performing public speaking, as well as and coping strategies used. This shows that the stress of public speaking is a prevalent occurrence and that institutional intervention can be developed by tertiary institutions to minimise its detrimental effects.
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