Papers by Nor Shidrah Mat Daud
International Journal of English Language Education
Writing is a crucial skill for university students to succeed in the current content-driven era. ... more Writing is a crucial skill for university students to succeed in the current content-driven era. However, many students are reported to be intimidated by writing as they find the task daunting, thus affecting their participation in writing activities. Students also rarely show encouraging writing behaviour, which leads to unsatisfactory written work. This study aimed to examine factors that contribute to their writing behaviour. A quantitative research method by means of a survey design was employed for data collection. A 43-item questionnaire was distributed randomly using a Google Form link to 84 undergraduate students who were undertaking various fields of study at a public university. Section A of the questionnaire queries the students’ demographic profile, whereas Section B, C, and D seek responses on their psychological state, confidence, and attitudes, respectively. Section E queries their writing behaviour. Descriptive analysis was performed on each factor, and Pearson’s cor...
International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences
This study investigates the face validity of an instrument developed to help elevate critical thi... more This study investigates the face validity of an instrument developed to help elevate critical thinking among interns. The instrument consists of a set of questions to guide interns' reflections called Prompts for Interns' Reflections (PIR). The items were checked for their comprehensiveness which is one of the validity criteria of the Description of Response Form proposed by (Rubio et al., 2003). Undergraduate students (n=9) who were undergoing internship participated in this study. The interns were asked to write their reflections on their internship experience based on the PIR and completed a survey. The findings from the survey indicated that the majority of the interns provided positive feedback on the PIR. The analysis of the written reflections also shows that the interns could write according to what was required by the questions. Generally, the prompts are feasible and valid in terms of its face validity particularly its comprehensiveness.
This study reports on a comparative study on writing anxiety among English majors who are second ... more This study reports on a comparative study on writing anxiety among English majors who are second language learners. There is little research reporting the level of writing anxiety of second language learners majoring in English. The study examines the relationship between Malaysian and Thailand undergraduates’ writing anxiety and their self-perceived language ability. It also explores the relationship between students’ writing apprehension and their usage frequency of online writing applications. A descriptive research design was adopted in this study. The research measures the students’ level of writing anxiety using adapted Daly-Miller writing apprehension test (1975). The data was collected using questionnaire surveys from a total of 307 English majors of two public universities in Malaysia and one in Thailand. The statistical tests indicated that although the self-perceived proficiency level of the Thai students was significantly lower than the Malaysian students, there was no significant difference among the English majors in their level of writing apprehension. It was also found that there was no statistically significant difference among the students in their usage frequency of most of the online applications. However, only the usage frequency of Instagram was found to be correlated with their apprehension. The study also found no correlation between writing apprehension and the lecturer as the audience of their writing activities. Findings indicate that the technology was widely used by the students for writing. The study indicates that the students were ready to adopt changes in the mode of content delivery from face-to face to online
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) provides an interactive avenue for unlimited number of partici... more Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) provides an interactive avenue for unlimited number of participants to interact and collaborate on joint projects. Realising the potential of MOOCs in accommodating more and diverse learners, four MOOCs were introduced by the Malaysian Ministry of Education in 2014. These courses allowed students from all the Malaysian public educational institutions to benefit from the shared content. They were expected to discuss issues related to their field of studies and share their experiences. Postings sent were analysed to study their patterns of interaction particularly the number of postings, threads and patterns of turn-taking. The contents of the messages were also analysed to determine if they reflect effective learning. The study found that there was not much evidence of collaborative learning and co-construction of knowledge. There was a high percentage of greetings and sharing of ‘words of wisdom’ compared to discussions on issues related to the les...
Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 2015
15.00 This paper investigates the effects of manipulating task complexity on the complexity of le... more 15.00 This paper investigates the effects of manipulating task complexity on the complexity of learner language production during asynchronous computer-mediated communication (ACMC) writing tasks. This study draws the construct of cognitive complexity indicated in Robinson’s Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson 2001a, 2003a, 2003b, 2005, 2007a, 2007b) which predicts that complex tasks made along resource-directing dimension will lead to greater complexity of language production while complex tasks made along resource-dispersing dimension will result in less complex language production. However, research on the effects of manipulating task complexity along both resource-directing and resource-dispersing dimensions is so far inconclusive. By means of an experimental design, 88 undergraduate English as a Second Language (ESL) students in a public Malaysian university were asked to perform different tasks manipulated along resource-directing (+/- causal reasoning demand) and resource-dispersi...
International Journal of Asian Social Science, 2021
Effective communication skills at the workplace are acknowledged as a highly sought skill by empl... more Effective communication skills at the workplace are acknowledged as a highly sought skill by employers among university students. However, an incongruity between employers' expectations and students' actual communication skills has been highlighted. An imperative subset of communication skills is oral presentation skills, which are found to be unsatisfactory among students. Thus, this conceptual study proposes examining the moderating influence of grit on the relationship between students' intention to present and their oral presentation performance. The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) is based upon modeling the relationship between students' intention, grit, and oral presentation performance. A quantitative method will be adopted using a questionnaire survey for the data collection. Simple random sampling will be employed to select respondents. The study involves a three-stage research process comprising (1) a pre-test, (2) a pilot study, and (3) actual fieldwork. The data obtained from the pilot study will be subjected to exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using SPSS. Subsequently, AMOS will use the data from the actual fieldwork for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and moderation analysis. Results of the analyses are expected to provide more conclusive evidence on the strength of grit in influencing the relationship between students' intention and their oral presentation performance. Contribution/ Originality: This study models the moderating influence of grit to provide further insight into the impact of grit. The relationship between students' intention and oral presentation performance is also proposed in this study to fill the gap in the existing literature.
International Journal of Modern Languages And Applied Linguistics, 2019
Alumni feedback is an important means of determining whether a course is of relevance to the stud... more Alumni feedback is an important means of determining whether a course is of relevance to the students’ needs. One of the courses that would benefit from their feedback is English for Occupational Purposes. Based on the practice at the workplace, graduates can provide information whether what was taught could be applied to their working environment. This study seeks to ascertain whether an EOP course is relevant to the needs of the graduates. A questionnaire survey was conducted, and a total of thirty alumni of an Arts Faculty responded to the survey. The findings indicate that the students benefited from the course, but a number of improvements can be made to make the course more effective. The study also highlighted the form of language used at work. The use of standard English, Malaysian English and Malay were found to be the highest in making small talks.
International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies, 2019
Phrasal verbs (PVs) are very common in English, indicating their usefulness in everyday settings.... more Phrasal verbs (PVs) are very common in English, indicating their usefulness in everyday settings. However, it was reported that language learners generally have great difficulties in understanding and using this linguistic form. This study investigated Malaysian learners’ receptive and productive knowledge of PVs, and some possible factors which may contribute to their difficulties in understanding and using this language feature. A set of PVs test was developed and distributed to 480 secondary school learners in Malaysia to identify their receptive and productive knowledge with respect to PVs. Real data from the English of Malaysian School Students (EMAS) Corpus was used to examine the actual use of PVs by Malaysian learners. Results of the PVs test indicated that in general, Malaysian learners had an average level of knowledge of PVs. Analysis of the EMAS corpus revealed that they faced a lot of problems in the production of PVs. Some possible factors are highlighted which may con...
INTED2017 Proceedings, 2017
Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) are among the skills that teachers at school are expected to ... more Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) are among the skills that teachers at school are expected to develop. In a language class, this can be a challenging task especially for teachers who are not trained in this area. Yet, many may not opt for a formal face-to-face training for various reasons. Time is usually one of the constraints. In-service training programmes are also impossible to arrange for all teachers in the country. In a survey conducted on English teachers in Malaysia, it was found that they preferred to have this kind of training conducted both on-site and online. Majority of them preferred to have the bulk of the course to be run online. This paper discusses the strategies and approaches that can be adopted by English language teachers to develop their students’ critical thinking skills when teaching literary texts. The paper also highlights how these are shared with the teachers using MOOC platform. The platform helps to make the content accessible to more teachers. keywords: hots, language teaching, mooc.
The language that is chosen as the medium of communication and instruction is normally more domin... more The language that is chosen as the medium of communication and instruction is normally more dominant that other languages that are spoken or taught in the country. Thus the language policy adopted by a particular country is of concern especially in places where many languages are spoken, and when there is a need for its population to know a certain language for certain specific reasons. One such country is Malaysia. It has seen a number of changes in its language policy. Bahasa Melayu has been the national and official language since independence in 1957 as documented in the Federal Constitution and the National Language Act. It is a common symbol of identity to integrate the three major ethnic groups which are the Malays, Chinese and Indians into one nation. After Malay was declared the national language in 1967 and the severe race riots in Kuala Lumpur in May 1969 it was decided that English-medium schools would be phased out in Malaysia and by 1985 all former English-medium schools would become Malay-medium schools. In 1994, Malaysia experienced yet another change in its bilingual education when English was adopted as the medium of instruction for scientific and technical courses at the tertiary level. A bolder move was made in May 2002 when English was made the medium of instruction replacing the national language for science and mathematics at schools. Many Malay nationalists, however, lament the move resulting in a decision to move back to Malay in 2009. This paper will discuss the impact of the changes on the potential English language instructors who are the product of the system. Essays produced by those applying for a teaching position at a public university were analysed for this purpose. The study reflects the difficulty in hiring language instructors who are fully proficient in the language.
Malaysia is a country which has experienced a number of changes in her language policy. Most of t... more Malaysia is a country which has experienced a number of changes in her language policy. Most of the time, the tussle is between the national language, Bahasa Melayu, and the second language, English. The latest change involves reverting to the use of Bahasa Melayu in the teaching of Science and Mathematics at school. This means that English teachers will be expected to play a bigger role in improving students' English language proficiency. To make this possible, it is imperative that teachers are highly proficient in the language. Experience shows that this is not necessarily the case. This papers discusses the current state of affairs where English language teaching is concerned. The problem is highlighted by taking the essays produced by applicants for English language posts at a public university in Malaysia from the year 2008 until June 2010 as a case study. A written test was part of the interview process at the university. Only the papers of Malaysians who went through the...
This study modeled the relationship between various psychological dimensions (motivation, languag... more This study modeled the relationship between various psychological dimensions (motivation, language aptitude and attitude towards language) that have been hypothesised to affect writing apprehension and performance. The method used in this study is the testing of a structural model through the use of structural equation modeling (SEM). Results of the analysis indicated good model-data fit. The Chi-square measure was 97.369, with 97 degrees of freedom, p = 0.470. The nonsignificant p-value, which was above 0.05, indicated an acceptable correspondence of data to the model. The normed chi-square value was found to be within the recommended range (3.0> /df>1.0) and the RMSEA (Root Mean Suare Error of Approximation) was 2 below 0.05. The incremental fit indices (normed fit index (NFI) and Tucker-Lewis Index) were above 0.95. The goodness-of-fit index (GFI) which is an absolute fit measure was also above the recommended value. In terms of parsimony, the model showed reasonable estima...
GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 2015
This study investigates the relationship between the cognitive demands of task complexity and lea... more This study investigates the relationship between the cognitive demands of task complexity and learners' motivation towards several tasks using task-based instruction during asynchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) writing tasks. According to Robinson's Cognition Hypotheses (2001a, 2005, 2007), the production of language would be different when certain manipulation of task complexity was made. The tasks were manipulated following two variables from the Cognition Hypotheses, along resourcedirecting (+/-causal reasoning demand) and resource-dispersing (+/-task structure) dimensions. Eighty-eight undergraduate students from one of the technical universities in Malaysia were divided into four groups and assigned with a writing task. After the participants have completed the writing tasks, they were interviewed and asked to complete a questionnaire to gauge their motivation towards the tasks. Participants' written language production was coded and analyzed using syntactic and lexical complexity measures. Further analysis of the data was conducted using Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) and correlational analysis. Analyses of the results showed that there is a correlation between task complexity and task motivation among learners. However, the correlation is only evident in lexical complexity production and no correlation was found for any of the syntactic complexity measures. This study is significant as it explores the roles of task complexity and task motivation in mediating the production of language. It also highlights how the manipulation of task complexity would encourage the production of the language in terms of its complexity.
Middle East Journal of Scientific Research
Gender stereotyping in society may influence career aspirations. This research seeks to determine... more Gender stereotyping in society may influence career aspirations. This research seeks to determine if this is true for language teaching profession. The study focuses on the distribution of English and Arabic teachers according to their gender. For this purpose, the number of English and Arabic instructors or academic staff at the public universities in Malaysia was surveyed. The results were compared and the study revealed that there was a higher number of female English instructors/academic than Arabic. On the other hand, males generally outnumbered females in the area of Arabic language teaching. Some possible explanations for the findings are discussed.
One important educational objective is to produce students who are critical of their own performa... more One important educational objective is to produce students who are critical of their own performance. A way this can be achieved is by giving students a more active role in the assessment process. This study examines the possibility of having students as assessors of their own performance. The study was conducted at the International Islamic University Malaysia in Computer Applications in Language Studies classes where problem-based learning approach was adopted. Ratings given by three categories of assessors namely teacher, self, and peer on two oral presentations were compared to see whether there were inconsistencies in the rating behavior of the different groups of assessors. Both quantitative and qualitative techniques were used in data collection. All assessors used the same assessment profile. Diary entry and interview techniques were used to gain further insight into students’ rating behaviour. The quantitative data was analyzed using the Many-facet Rasch model, and results ...
International Journal of Linguistics, 2015
predicts that more cognitively complex tasks along resource-directing dimension will lead to grea... more predicts that more cognitively complex tasks along resource-directing dimension will lead to greater complexity of language production while cognitively complex tasks along resource-dispersing dimension will result in less complex language production. Various studies have investigated the effects of manipulating variables on these dimensions (i.e. resource-directing and resource-dispersing) either in oral or written language production. This paper compares and contrasts the results of several studies that were conducted by manipulating these variables in written language production. It also suggests guidelines for future research studies in this area. It concludes that further studies are necessary to investigate how language teachers can integrate and manipulate task-based instruction in their classrooms.
... and Husband, Mr. Jaafar Md Napis and children, Nurul Syafieqah, Muhammad ' Afif ... more ... and Husband, Mr. Jaafar Md Napis and children, Nurul Syafieqah, Muhammad ' Afif Fakhrie, Nur 'Alieya and Muhammad Fikrie 'Aqlan COPYRIGHT @ UiTM Page 6. TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE i LETTER OF APPOINTMENT ii LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL iv ...
melta.org.my
Writing is a demanding activity especially for learners of a second / foreign language and yet it... more Writing is a demanding activity especially for learners of a second / foreign language and yet it is a skill that they have to master in order to do well in content courses especially at the tertiary level of education. Studies have shown that students' writing performance is related to anxiety. What is uncertain is whether anxiety is the cause or the consequence of poor writing performance. This study seeks to find how anxiety is related to performance using the deficit hypothesis as its guiding principle. The findings show that the subjects in this study suffered anxiety as a result of their lack of writing skills, and that the better students experienced less anxiety than the weaker ones.
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Papers by Nor Shidrah Mat Daud