This study seeks to identify the relevance and challenges faced in conducting language activities to help foster second/foreign language learning at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Terengganu. This is also aimed at assisting the organization to review practices of having language activities, hoping this may further cultivate and generate enthusiasm among students to learn second/foreign languages. This research also offers some possible ways to improve students' activities so as to help enhance their second/foreign language learning. In other words, this research may serve as a preliminary attempt aiming at providing reflections and insights on how students' participation in language activities conductedmay be usefulfor them in learning second/foreign languages. The research employs quantitative methodology in which random stratified sampling technique is used Samples consist of Bumiputera students taking English (as a second language) and Mandarin, French, and Arabic classes (as foreign languages). Generally, students are ofthe opinion that language activities can become a significant platform to project andshow their language skills and competency during presentations/performances. Nevertheless, as one ofmany recommendations suggested in the findings of this research, wefound that there is still a needfor evaluation andfo//ow-up work after having participated in the language activities.
Interactive and interactional metadiscourse are linguistic features used to maintain the coherence in essays. It involved a one-way interaction between the writer and reader, thus a challenge for Second Language (L2) learners to write effectively and comprehensively. A study is done on how the L2 learners produced the metadiscourse features and the usage is compared. A corpus of 200 evaluative essays by UiTM undergraduate students from computer science and business administration courses is analysed based on Hyland’s (2005) framework. The purpose is to find out the amount and types of metadiscourse used and whether students from different course groups make any differences in their choices. The analysis revealed that students in both courses produced more interactive than interactional metadiscourse. The most prominent feature is Self-mention and the least is Attitude Markers. The same prominent feature for both courses is Transition Markers. The business administration course shows the least feature in Evidentials, whereas Frame Markers in computer science. These are evidence as to the importance of metadiscourse in students’ academic writings and awareness is shown in its usage. This could lead to a proposition for a metadiscourse writing comparison between secondary schools and universities to gain fascinating outcomes.
Keywords: Evaluative writings, Interactional metadiscourse, Interactive metadiscourse, L2 learners, undergraduates
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