This ethnographic research uses the applied linguistic landscape of Ben-Rafael (2009) to examine the choices of language practice (Spolsky, 2009) reflected through 459 Romanised names of the company on an island in Malaysia named Labuan. One of the outcomes of this study shows Malaysians are basically bilingual and about half of the names of the company are bilingual. However, the use of Malay language in naming the companies on the island is low though the Malay language is the national language of the country and the Malaysian government has implemented the Malay language education policy since independence in 1957. There are only 13% of company names presented in pure Malay language comparing to those in pure English (45%) and in code-mixing of Malay language and English or other languages (42%). Besides a low percentage of using the Malay language in the company names, incorrect uses of the language were identified. The study suggests the Malaysian government specifically the local government considers the company name written in both Malay language and English instead of merely in the Malay language when it comes to approving the application of new company licenses.
There are limited reports about development of questionnaire to measure learning satisfaction among young children. In this research, guidelines were listed for developing a questionnaire that gauges Chinese Character Literacy Learning Satisfaction (CCLLS) among 8-year-old children. The research was undertaken based on the responses of 232 children from 11 Chinese national type primary schools (SJKC) of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. The CCLLS questionnaire consists of 12 items developed through three dimensions of satisfaction, which are (1) Satisfaction towards Chinese characters writing, (2) Satisfaction towards Chinese characters recognizing, (3) Satisfaction towards the learning in classroom. Rasch analysis was used to examine the item polarity. The result showed point measure correlation was within 0.47 – 0.60. The items were also detected with the outfit mean square in the range of 0.76 – 1.24, indicating CCLLS was fit to measure the children’s learning satisfaction. The raw variance explained by measures (33.3%), the unexplained variance in first contrast (9.1%), with the eigenvalue (1.6%) from the principal component analysis, suggested that CCLLS could be unidimensional. The internal consistency was considered very high with 0.81 in Cronbach’s alpha (KR-20). The result also showed CCLLS has very good item reliability (0.91) with good item separation index (3.23). The person reliability (0.77) was in satisfactory range with moderately good person separation index (1.81). The findings indicated that CCLLS questionnaire could be a valid and reliable tool in measuring Chinese character literacy learning satisfaction among 8-year-old primary school children of SJKC. Keywords: children questionnaire, Chinese Characters Literacy Learning Satisfaction, Rasch analysis, validity and reliability
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the education practice in Malaysia. Online mode has become the new teaching and learning norm in Malaysia. This study applied the L2 language learning engagement to investigate the language engagement and motivation among the undergraduates in online language learning during the pandemic. The study was conducted in one of the local universities, the University of Malaysia Sabah as the research site. A survey by using questionnaire and interview session were administered to collect data for the study. The research sample of the study comprised of 42 respondents and five interviewees and they were the second-year undergraduates. The research findings of the study showed i) the synchronised online classroom learning is the main platform for the undergraduates to practise their listening skill; ii) all the undergraduates practised their speaking skill in language learning through online mode; iii) the reading material for the undergraduate students to practise their reading skill is related to the language lessons and preparation of course work and iv) the undergraduates write in the language they learnt when preparing for their course work and texting their language lecturers. The study also highlighted the telcos played the most importance role in making the online teaching and learning successful.
The article reviewed the relationship between language competency and business opportunity in five global regional trading blocs. By having the language competency may facilitate the business opportunity but language differences may create frictions between the business partners and/or the workers. Besides for the purpose of communication, language use in the business world may enhance trust and loyalty between business partners and from the customers. Different linguistic landscapes are formed and dominated by different language communities in the global business world. Five important languages used in the global business world which are English, Mandarin, Spanish, German and Portuguese, are reviewed according to their regional trading blocs. Malaysian authority specifically the Malaysian Education Ministry is suggested to design and adapt more practical and relevant education language plan to produce graduates with different language competencies for the future human resource market. The authority is also suggested to create a favourable institutional environment for variant language use in the country.
The purpose of this paper is to examine the readiness on online learning during COVID-19 pandemic based on the conceptual frameworks adapted from Stauffer (2020), Butnaru et al. (2021), and (John Lemay et al., 2021). It is mainly quantitative in nature alongside some quantitative data. It examines the students’ readiness of shifting from the face-to-face teaching and learning to online learning. They are also asked to provide their experience of accessing online learning. The research data was collected at a local university in Malaysia through a survey comprises 71 student respondents and an interview with 10 student interviewees. The results of the research show that i) the students were exceled in computer skills but unfamiliar to the online platform; ii) students were satisfied with the internet network support quality; iii) few students used mono type online device to access online learning; iv) students did not have previous experience on online learning during high school and the students felt anxious before and during accessing online learning. The findings further reveal that the internet network support provided in the country is the factor of some students unable to access the online learning smoothly, they used more than one type of online device to access the online learning and felt anxiety on the disconnection of internet might affect their performance in assessments and presentation evaluation. The telcos are suggested to accelerate the upgrade of their internet network support quality in order to facilitate the success of the National 4IR policy in the country.
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