This study seeks to examine the impact of using language games on students’ vocabulary retention. Six language games were chosen for this study; (1) describe it, (2) matching pairs, (3) jigsaw puzzle, (4) board rush,(5) ball games and (6) true or false. The rationale for choosing six different games is based on the understanding that students require at least five to sixteen exposures to learn a new word (Nation’s, 2001) foreffective vocabulary retention. For this study, vocabulary retention is the ability to keep or retain the new words that are taught for the duration of two weeks. The Pre-test and post-test were used to measure the vocabularyretention of the students. Prior to the pre-test, all 64 participants were taught for two weeks using the conventional teaching method by getting students to look words up in the dictionary, write definitions, and use the words in sentences (Basurto, 2004).For this traditional teaching, the eight new words were chosen from unit 10 of the text book for grade three of Malaysian elementary schools. For the next stage, the students weretaught eight new words from unit 11 of the same text book. After two weeks of teaching using the above six games, the students were given the posttest. The findings revealed that there was a significant difference invocabulary retention between the pre-test and post-test. The participants were able to retain significantly more words in the post-test than in the pre-test. In fact, they achieved better results in the post-test (M=63.45) than in the pre-test (M=58.71). This study reveals that language games can help to boost the students’ vocabulary retention if they are given a chance to learn and practice English language in a fun learning environment.
Language educators tend to focus extensively on reading and writing skills. Listening activities are often carried out only to test the students' abilities which may lead to their anxiety and apprehension (Vandergrift, 1999). Generally, many students face difficulty in their listening assessments. Students need to apply certain mental steps or operations in listening to encounter their listening problems. These mental steps are referred to as strategies to assist the learners to achieve a reasonable listening comprehension (Goh, 2002).This study is designed to identify the students' levels of Metacognitive Awareness Strategies in performing their listening tasks and to examine the influence of the strategies on their test scores. The study was conducted in two stages of Pre-test and Post-test, where 100 participants were selected based on a convenience sampling. After submitting their Pre and Post-tests, they were required to complete a Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ), developed by Vandergrift et al. (2006). Overall, the findings show an increase in the percentage of correct answers for the listening comprehension task, based on the MCQ given. The findings reveal that metacognitive strategy awareness has a positive effect on students' test scores. ESL teachers can enhance the use of MALQ strategies for listening comprehension. Further research is necessary to study how metacognitive strategies affect the students' listening performance, as well as, to conduct interventions that will encourage metacognitive awareness.
A positive correlation between self-esteem and academic achievement is often noted in the literature on educational psychology. As such, self-esteem and academic achievement are often inter-related. Additionally, gender is believed to have an impact on an individual’s self-esteem and varied disparities are found in self-esteem level between genders. The relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement among undergraduates in Malaysia, is still understudied and the lack of literature necessitates an empirical study. Hence, this study explored the relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement among undergraduates of a private university in Malaysia. Also, it investigated if there is any significant difference in self-esteem and academic achievement between genders. A convenience sampling method was employed on 60 male and 60 female undergraduates of TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) program. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Questionnaire was utilized to obtain the data on the participants’ self-esteem and their Grade Point Average (GPA). Data analysis using Spearman’s rho correlation revealed a significant relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement. Based on the Chi-square test result, a significant difference in academic achievement between male and female students was established. However, the independent t-test result revealed an absence of significant difference in self-esteem between male and female students. The findings demonstrate essential implications for students, counselors, and educators, and suggest relevant recommendations for future research. A larger sample size should be employed, and other important demographic variables should be explored to examine more in-depth into this interesting field of study.
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