The paper addresses the key question in teaching English language, that is, how does teacher cognition interact with classroom practice. The paper is part of a larger study which was conducted in sub-urban schools in Sarawak, East Malaysia via qualitative case study method involving teachers in actual classroom practice. The teacher participants were video-recorded in two separate teaching sessions to capture as far as possible authentic teacher cognition practice. Each teacher was then asked to review his own recorded lessons and verbally report on his actions in the class via stimulated recall protocol technique. The qualitative data generated were analysed for specific features in relation to three main knowledge types representing teacher cognition namely, knowledge of students, pedagogical content knowledge and general pedagogical knowledge. Several features were identified and categorised according to the knowledge types. As far as Knowledge of students (KS) is concerned, it is important for teachers to be aware of their students' preferred learning styles as well as their proficiency levels. On Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), teachers should allow their students a lot of freedom in choosing the activities they prefer. As regards General pedagogical knowledge (GPK), teachers need to be less dominating in the actual classroom practice but instead acting more as facilitator to help guide and facilitate the students' learning process. For future research, it is recommended that longitudinal studies be conducted to further provide insights into teacher cognition via generation of larger corpus of data on evidence of teacher cognition processes.
The token economy is a pivotal notion in educational settings for maintaining good classroom behaviours among learners. Despite the burgeoning number of studies conducted to determine the efficiency of the token economy, most have been primarily interested in the learners’ perspective. With a gap in the literature to investigate the phenomenon from the educators’ perspectives, the present study surveyed 154 English teachers in Malaysia during the COVID-19 pandemic. The respondents who taught at government schools were involved in examining the token economy as an approach to behavioural management and learning engagement. The data collection was performed through a self-completed questionnaire survey of Google Form via various online platforms. The study showed that Malaysian English teachers from government schools were in complete agreement that the implementation of the token economy in ESL classrooms is effective in eliciting desired behaviours and reducing disruptive behaviours among learners. Social and physical reinforcement were the most effective forms of the token economy in the classroom as opposed to other types of reinforcement. The implications of the study include the possibility of the token economy becoming a catalyst in the educational landscape for changing behaviour and boosting learning motivation, particularly among young learners who are usually emotionally sensitive.
Most historical narratives of European colonization in the East are accounts from Western perspective, which justifies colonialism as an acceptable means to introduce western civilization into the colonized communities. Brooke's one-hundred-year-old dynasty in Sarawak was illustrative of European's imperialistic subjugation of land, which had long been occupied by local native inhabitants. Assuming the position of a white rajah, James Brooke being the so-called civilized white supremacist, justified his subjugation of the Dayaks in the name of bringing peace to an otherwise chaotic, savage land. Several war expeditions were launched by James Brooke and later Charles Brooke by enlisting the tamed Dayaks to exterminate other groups of fellow Dayaks deemed recalcitrant and rebellious causing high causalities among the Dayaks. This paper aims to revisit the extant historical narratives produced by Western writers and to critically examine Brooke's relations with the Dayaks from a Dayak writer's perspective. The paper employed two main historical research methods, namely, triangulation and hermeneutic approach to critically examine history texts on Brooke's rule. Based on the critical analysis of the historical accounts as produced by Western writers and even from Charles Brooke's own diary, there was cogent historical evidence to show that the white Rajahs though paternal, as portrayed by western writers, were actually responsible for manipulating and exploiting the Dayaks in order to sustain their hegemonic power over the Dayaks.
This paper explores the process of implementing the Individualised Metaphonological Awareness Instruction (I-MAI) for the teaching and learning of acrolectal English in terms of the phonological aspect: selected suprasegmental features of English sound, namely, the schwa and catenation or linking features. For instance, not producing the neutral schwa vowel sound is in part what gives those whose second language is English an accent or pronunciation that is different from those whose first language is English. Producing or not producing schwa vowel sounds affects the quality of one's pronunciation and how natural one sounds when speaking English. If the sophisticated learners aspire to approximate the RP model in their enunciation, schwa and catenation are deemed very important. The study assesses the instruction model in terms of its facilitative effects in assisting the teacher as well as in assisting the student to learn selected aspects of suprasegmental features of English sounds via scaffolding process. It is a qualitative case study which involves five ( 5) participant undergraduates at a public university in Sarawak. Only qualitative data involving one participant were reported and discussed in this paper. It was found that firstly the I-MAI model did assist both the teacher and the student in coaching and learning pronunciation respectively. The process of micro-scaffolding yielded varied scaffolding features/characteristics that explain the interactive dynamics occurring within the individualised instructional process itself. The I-MAI was also found to be positive and facilitative in enhancing the student's metaphonological awareness of the suprasegmental features of English sounds.
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