Willingness to Communicate (WTC) in English has become a field of interest since the construct was introduced by McCroskey and Baer in 1985. This study, investigated 230 trainee teachers' Willingness to Communicate in English in terms of gender, nationality, ethnic group, course and years of study at the Faculty of Education in a Malaysian private university. The results of the study revealed that participants had moderate willingness to communicate in English and preferred to initiate communication in English with friends rather than acquaintances or strangers. There were significant differences among participants in WTC based on their gender, ethnic group, type of study and the period they spent in the Faculty of Education. Changing classroom environment, grouping technique and providing opportunities outside the classroom for communicating in English through English language clubs, journeys to native speaking countries, debates, drama, songs and free writing competitions can help them communicate in English away from the stress caused by curriculum based activities linked to credits and grades.
Studies from several countries have shown that qualified educators in early childhood programmes make a significant difference in providing quality
Introduction. Early childhood care and education is majorly concerning around the world. Malaysian government has formulated childhood care and education national policy and legal framework to protect the rights of childhood. However, the Education Blueprint of Malaysia acknowledged that serious problems still remain with the quality of education and the investment in education is not as high as expected. The objective of the study is to investigate parents' perspectives of quality ECCE programs with regard to center characteristics of environment, teachers, principals, curriculum as well as parent's communication and involvement opportunities. Materials and methods. Study has selected mix method approach where parent perspectives of existing quality of early childhood care and education (ECCE) in the selected states of Malaysia been obtained. The 629 questionnaires samples were distributed among the parent 's having a child in a pre-school and 22 parents took part in the focus group interviews, designed to elicit their perspectives of ECCE programs with regard to center characteristics, environment, teachers, principals, and curriculum as well as parent involvement and communication opportunities Results. Demographically results shows 60.8% female and 39.2% male participants have contributed with 32% age 31-35 years old, about 38.1% Malay followed by 32.2% Chines and 18% Indian ethnicity races were part of this study. The standard deviation analysis indicated that Parents’s perceptive on Centre Characteristics is (M=4.039, SD= 0.796) Parents’ Views on Environment (M=3.582, SD=0.953); Parents’ Views on Teachers and Principals (M=4.197, SD=0.731) Parents’ Views on Curriculum ((M=3.735, SD=0.771) and Parents’ Views on Parent Communication and Involvement Opportunities (M=4.171, SD=0.630). The overall statistical analysis shows parents’ perceptive is satisfactory on the quality of ECCE programmes. Conclusion. Study has concluded that parents have found ECCE programmes much effective where children not only enjoy but their learning improves. Parents have appreciated the quality of hygiene level and facilities in pre-school are up to the mark and standard but further can be improved. Quality of curriculum should have multilingual instruction and play based teaching and learning is suggested by the parent’s to improve.
Continuing professional development (CPD) is accepted as an integral part of teacher education because only continuing learning and training assures a high level of expertise and enables the teachers to keep their professional skills and knowledge upto-date. CPD therefore should not be regarded only as an obligatory activity just to meet the required training hours set by supervisors, operators and educational settings. This paper primarily aims to present the preliminary findings of early childhood teachers' and operators' needs and concerns for continuing professional development for Early Childhood Care and Education teachers in selected states of Malaysia.
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