Papers by DR. SARIMAH SHAMSUDIN
Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2013
Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences
According to DeCarrico and Nattinger (1988, p. 91), comprehension of academic lectures by non-nat... more According to DeCarrico and Nattinger (1988, p. 91), comprehension of academic lectures by non-native speakers has long been a neglected problem and has only recently been seriously addressed. To explore this phenomenon, a spoken academic corpus of Malaysian engineering lectures is being developed and analysed by a group of researchers in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. One of the aims of this endeavour is to offer engineering students with strategies in listening to and learning from lectures effectively. To this end, the moves of engineering lecture introductions and the steps used in each of the moves are identified and presented in this paper.
Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2013
Engineering students at the tertiary level are required to read specialised textbooks which conta... more Engineering students at the tertiary level are required to read specialised textbooks which contain a substantial amount of technical vocabulary or terminology that are necessary in their field of study. Engineering dictionaries are available in the market, but unfortunately they may not carry all the engineering terminology found in engineering textbooks. A list of corpus-based engineering vocabulary or glossary obtained from recommended introductory engineering textbooks that meet the needs of first year engineering students may assist them to better understand engineering terminology found in the textbooks. In order to develop this specialist glossary, a survey was carried out on a group of 45 engineering lecturers in a tertiary institution. The survey aims to find out the needs of first year engineering students for a glossary of introductory engineering terminology. In order to develop the glossary, favourite engineering topics from recommended textbooks should first be obtained. This paper will therefore present the results of the needs analysis.
Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2013
Corpora have been proven to be useful in investigating language learning issues. It has also been... more Corpora have been proven to be useful in investigating language learning issues. It has also been influential in vocabulary learning. Through the years, data-driven vocabulary learning has been recognised as one of the effective means of learning specialised vocabulary. In the context of engineering students, they are required to read specialised textbooks which contain a substantial amount of technical vocabulary or terminology that are necessary in their field of study. Engineering dictionaries unfortunately may not carry all the terms found in engineering textbooks. There seems to be a need to develop a glossary of corpus-based engineering vocabulary or word list to meet the needs of these engineering students. This kind of word list may better assist them in their understanding of the engineering terms found in the textbooks. This paper reviews the literature which is related to corpora leading to the development of word lists and lexical syllabuses for courses meant for the teaching and learning of ESP at higher educational institutions. It then briefly discusses the relevance of developing a word list of engineering terms for beginner engineering students.
Journal Teknologi (Social Sciences), 2013
More and more Malaysian upper secondary school students are doing well in their studies and enter... more More and more Malaysian upper secondary school students are doing well in their studies and entering colleges and universities for matriculation and diploma programmes immediately after school. Besides English for General Purposes (EGP), secondary school students should also be familiarized with the 570 academic words (in the Academic Word List) that may appear frequently in academic texts. At tertiary learning institutions, academic words are essential because students have to read more specialised and complex academic texts. This research was carried out to investigate whether the Malaysian secondary school English language syllabuses cater to the academic vocabulary needs of students who enter tertiary institutions. To investigate this, the researcher put all the 1,316 words listed in the word lists (for the lower and upper secondary school syllabuses found at the end of the syllabuses’ booklets) into Range (Nation, 2005), a tool which separates words into General Service Word List (GSL) and Academic Word List (AWL). The results reveal that of the 1,316 words, only seven belong to AWL while the majority are GSL words. Although there are statements made in the syllabuses indicating that they also cater to the students’ needs for their further education, the target words specified in the word lists suggest that they are meant mainly for EGP. The students’ academic vocabulary need has apparently been neglected.
International Journal of English Language and Literature Studies, 2013
Teaching a language is a complicated process which requires considering and applying a method whi... more Teaching a language is a complicated process which requires considering and applying a method while performing it and is conducted through a method in a language class. A teaching methodology refers to the way or method in which a teacher teaches the learners. The methodology used by the teacher will determine the kinds of work and activities the students will do in class and how well or how poorly the student or learner will be able to learn and use the language. Thus it is imperative that the method or approach used in the classroom meet the needs of the learners. This paper aims to discuss the communicative language teaching method and its application in the EFL context.
Computer Assisted Language Learning, 2006
This paper will describe an ESP approach to the design and implementation of computer-mediated co... more This paper will describe an ESP approach to the design and implementation of computer-mediated communication (CMC) tasks for computer science students at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, and discuss the effectiveness of the chat feature of Windows NetMeeting as a tool for developing specified language skills. CMC tasks were set within a programme of sustained-content language instruction (SCLI), a variation on the content-based instruction approach. Various studies have confirmed the potential of SCLI as a means of familiarising language learners with academic genres and the language skills expected of them in the content classroom. To date, however, there has been little or no research into the use of CMC within SCLI. We found that students who followed a programme of SCLI using CMC ESP tasks made significant improvements in their oral communication skills, and also achieved higher scores than their peers in a computer science project undertaken in the semester following the treatment.
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Papers by DR. SARIMAH SHAMSUDIN