English is an international language and in demand today. English is by far the most widely used language around the world. However, English language writing has always been a challenge for second language students to master. Developing students' ability in writing is one of the major challenges faced by the ESL teachers in most schools nowadays. Nevertheless, writing has always been a major difficulty faced by students in English language learning, especially in elementary schools. Not only that, teachers are also facing some challenges in teaching writing skills for students in elementary schools. Thus, this study aims to explore the challenges faced by both the students and teachers in learning as well as teaching writing skills in elementary schools.

In today's ever-changing world, the English language has been placed to be one of the important languages in communication, as well as the main medium of instruction in education. To be in line with this acknowledgement, the Ministry of Education of Malaysia has placed the importance of mastering the English language and has highlighted the need for students to excel in the language as early as in the primary school years. To reach this aim, the Ministry of Education has introduced the GPMP (Gred Purata Mata Pelajaran/ Subject Grade Point Average) target for English to schools in every state to ensure every school performs well in the subject. However, there are still a handful of schools that are unable to pass this GPMP target for English due to the poor performance of their students in the subject. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the factors that interfere with the students' performance in learning English. The participants of this study were the 116 students from the seven schools that were unable to reach the state's GPMP in the English language. This study used questionnaire as the instrument to explore the factors that hindered them from performing well in the subject. Overall, the findings show that there are three major themes that contribute to the students' difficulties in the English language learning; the lack of English vocabulary, the influence of the first language and the socio-economic status of the family. The findings and discussion of this study would be able to help the pertinent parties such as teachers, school administrators and parents to make decisions for the learners' improvement in their English language learning.

In recent years, the burden of caregiving for mental illness service users has been alarming due to the lack of resources in mental health services in Malaysia. The issue of caregiving for mental illness service users in Malaysia now then become more complex because of its multiracial society, with people from different cultural backgrounds and who possess varied beliefs and attitudes. This paper aims to review the development of mental health services from the era of independence till the post millennium era. Firstly, the researchers discuss the history of mental health development by looking at mental health institution from the perspective of government plan. Secondly, the development of mental health policy is followed. Thirdly, mental health resources in terms of professional service providers and physical support are reviewed in this section. Lastly, current issues on mental health service and recommendation for future research. In conclusion, we suggest that it will be more effective for mental health professionals to join together to take collective action through the existing organisations such as the Malaysian Social Workers’ Association, Malaysian Mental Health Association and Malaysian Psychiatric Association. Furthermore, mental health professionals can help the caregivers organise their own family support groups through partnership in order to voice their opinions to the government/policy makers for the improvement and development of social policy

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the abrupt closures of all learning institutions have caused English as second language (ESL) learners to have significant difficulties learning the English language especially for speaking skills. Speaking is one of the most important skills to learn because it is the primary mode of communication around the world. However, the majority of ESL learners are still trying to improve their English speaking abilities. Since the implementation of the COVID-19 lockdowns, e-learning has been a well-known solution all over the world. Learners and educators need more time to adjust to online teaching and learning because most of them are exploring new technical innovations and strategies to be used in the classroom. As a result, this study includes a literature review on the challenges ESL learners encounter in learning speaking skills, as well as the use of social media and video conferencing tools to teach speaking skills. Lack of motivation and self-confidence, fear, hesitation, and limited vocabulary are some of the challenges faced by ESL learners. Hence, it is vital to determine the technology intervention used in teaching and developing speaking skills among these learners based on previous study. During the COVID-19 pandemic, some of the interventions in teaching speaking skills included utilizing social media and video conferencing applications like Facebook, WhatsApp, and others for online teaching and learning. Educators of English as a Second Language (ESL) might then pick the ones that would work best in their particular classroom.

The use of social media in teaching has also revolutionized the way learning takes place. At higher education levels, measures have already been taken in incorporating the use of social media for learning purposes especially in the teaching of language. However, at secondary school levels, educators are still having doubts about using social media due to multiple issues. Thus, this study was conducted to investigate the perceptions of secondary school students and a teacher in Malaysia on the use of Google+ towards the teaching of ESL writing skills. A case study method was adopted to carry out this research. 12 students from a class of form four secondary school students volunteered to participate in this study. Data were collected through focus group interview on the students and an individual interview with the class teacher and field notes. The overall findings of the study are that participants had positive perceptions on the usage of Google+ towards ESL writing. They gained a number of benefits, which include: having enjoyable and attentive lessons through the interactive features of Google+, as well as engaging themselves in an active and interesting lesson. The participants felt that they were having a sense of purpose, thus becoming more engaged in the writing tasks. As for interaction, the participants were interacting more confidently in Google+ writing classes compared to conventional writing lessons. The implication derived from this study is that teachers need to be made aware of how to integrate social media as learning tools in the teaching of English as a Second Language (ESL), particularly, in the teaching of ESL writing to upper secondary school students.

Speaking skill is one of the most essential skills to be acquired as it is the means of communication around the globe. However, most of the English as second language learners (ESL), are still struggling to develop their speaking skills in English. Thus, this paper provides a literature review on the challenges faced by the ESL learners in learning speaking skills and English educators' approaches in teaching speaking skills. Some of the challenges faced by the ESL learners are lack of motivation and self-confidence, anxiety, inhibition and limited knowledge of vocabulary. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the approaches employed by English language educators in teaching speaking skills and enhancing the speaking skills among these learners from related past studies. Some of the English language educators' approaches in teaching speaking skills are by using social media such as Instagram, flipped classroom, debates and games as learning activities within and outside classroom. By identifying the approaches employed by other educators, ESL educators could select the ones which might be feasible in their own classroom.

The teachers nowadays are trained properly, competently enough, excel academically with high grades but still considered as "incapable" or "unfit" to teach. There are still many problems and weaknesses among young graduates, despite the initiatives taken by the government to address the issue. The adoption and practice of active learning approaches into the component of course design offered in higher institutions is a common practice nowadays and is crucial in addressing these weaknesses among our young graduates. This case study identifies the effectiveness of active learning strategies and benefits in curriculum and pedagogy course which is a central concept of student-centred learning, derived from the constructivist approach. This article aims to ensure the course efficacy by integrating active learning to support their practice of active learning brought to learners by micro teaching, peer-reflections/feedbacks and self-reflections. Data were collected from documents in a form of e-reflections in ifolio and telephone interviews via WhatsApp Mobile Phone application. This qualitative study reports in detail the experience of 10 undergraduate students. The findings reveal the effectiveness of the three commonly used strategies associated with active learning strategies in this study. Among the beneficial of imparting active learning strategies are as follows; creates positive learning environment, allows direct interaction between lecturers and students, promotes open minded ideology, learn to respect someone else opinion, enhance communication skill, allows students to personally engaged with the learning activities and encourage participation. The findings and discussion of this study would be able to help the pertinent parties such as policy maker, teachers, facilitators and students with better guidance for utilising and maximizing different other selections of active learning strategies Creative Education that could benefit teaching and learning process in the higher education scenario.

In the effort to upgrade pupils' vocabulary learning experience, the potential of interactive educational games is increasingly explored as supplementary teaching and learning materials. While the eagerness to integrate mobile technology into English language education is noticeable, there is a lack of evidence on Malaysian English as Second Language (ESL) learners' views of the feasibility of online games in vocabulary learning. This study aims to determine the degree of improvement in pupils' vocabulary performance. The quantitative data was analysed using descriptive and dependent t-test analysis. The cross-sectional survey was adapted from the ACRS-V model. The questionnaire was distributed to Year 5 pupils from a national primary school in Negeri Sembilan who are using the syllabus of The English Language Curriculum for Primary Schools (KSSR). The findings show a moderate level of Satisfaction, Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Volition. In addition, a paired sample t-test indicates a significant improvement in the pupils’ vocabulary scores after using WordWall (WOW) as a vocabulary learning supplementary material. The effect size demonstrated is also larger regarding its effects in behavioural sciences. This study provides important insights as a guide for primary school English teachers in integrating online games as a learning tool for English language learning, especially in developing pupils’ English vocabulary repertoire.