This study highlights the importance of intonation and its function for intelligibility in communication, particularly amongst teachers in ESL classrooms. It was carried out to ascertain non-native English language teachers’ awareness of the attitudinal functions that intonation carries in responding to yes/no questions. Thirty Malay English language teachers working in a language centre were taken as the sample. Two different tasks, a listening test and an open-ended questionnaire, were provided to test their knowledge and perception of the attitudinal functions of intonation with regards to the responses given to yes/no questions. The findings from this study suggest that these teachers demonstrated an intermediate level of knowledge about intonation and its attitudinal function. However, they were in agreement about the importance of intonation for communication in classrooms, with students from various cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The implication of this study is that teachers should provide students with sufficient exposure to the proper use of intonation in order to avoid miscommunication. Students must be made aware that correct intonation facilitates correct interpretations.
This paper aims to analyse Form One students’ ability in reading prose. A qualitative research method was carried out involving 6 average ability students. The prose “Fair’s Fair” byNarinder Dhami was used as an instrument to gauge students’ ability in oral reading. The assessment carried out on the reading is miscue analysis, a tool to measure oral reading accuracy at the word level by identifying when and the ways in which the students deviates from the text while reading aloud. Miscues analysed are insertions, hesitation, omission, repetition and substitution. Miscues that maintain the meaning of the sentences are the participants’ strengths while miscues which disrupt the meaning of the sentences are the participants’ weaknesses. The data collected are analysed using descriptive statistics. The findings show that the percentage of strengths outweighed the percentage of weaknesses for all the participants on the occurrences of miscues. The students’ reading behaviour has provided insights into their language cueing system and the strategies they use during the reading process to comprehend a text.
This study highlights the importance of text-reader factors in prose reading. The study was carried out to identify the text-reader factors involved in enhancing reading comprehension. A qualitative research methodology was employed involving individual in-depth interview sessions with six average ability Form Two students from a secondary school. The interviews were conducted to gauge their views on the influence of text-reader factors in text comprehension. The interview questions centered on the literature textbook currently used in school and also the short story “Cheat” by Allan Baillie included in the book. Thematic analysis was carried out on the data collected. The findings show that text-reader factors affect text comprehension. The factors include pictures, font, the author, glossary, text organization, cover of the book and the length of the literary prose forms. The reader factors are related to the students’ life background, interest, and motivation in reading. The study implies that these text-reader factors must be met to ensure improved reading comprehension ability among students.
This paper aims to analyze the readability of the prose forms prescribed for students at the lower secondary level comprising short stories and a novel. The research question addressed is, 'What are the text-reader factors which affect students' reading comprehension?' Interview sessions were carried out with 18 lower secondary students and the questions posed during the interview sessions focused on text-reader factors. Thematic analysis was carried out to analyze data from the verbatim transcription. The findings revealed that students were unhappy with certain physical aspects of the prose forms. Nonetheless, the literary texts used appears to match the readability level of the students involved. Results also show that the prose forms selected cater to all Malaysian lower secondary students of different language abilities and background. The weak students could be guided to read and understand the prose forms whereas the good students could improve themselves with enrichment activities.
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