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The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the prohibition of close contact and this unprecedented issue has led to the abrupt closure of schools and universities across the country. Teacher education programs have taken a toll as the final year students would not be able to fully experience the working environment in a school during teaching practicum. Thus, this systematic literature review aims to explore the lived experiences of pre-service teachers teaching practicum experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, after screening from 23,084 research articles, 8 relevant articles that focus on the teaching practicum experiences of pre-service teachers during the pandemic were chosen for review in order to achieve the objective. The findings show that the pre-service teachers teaching practicum experiences can be categorised into intrapersonal development or interpersonal development. Pre-service teachers seem to have a positive perception towards the change as they understood the importance of the transition from face-to-face learning to online learning during the pandemic. Other than that, positive or negative teaching practicum experiences highly depend on the institutions as much as the pre-service teachers depend on themselves. The future agenda and implementation of the findings are also discussed.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the writing problems faced by the Post-UPSR learners during their primary school years. The data was obtained from 217 high achiever learners who scored an A on the UPSR. These learners, who had completed primary schools and taken the UPSR exam, are now enrolled in secondary schools as Form 1 learners. The method used is a quantitative study. A questionnaire was used as the instrument in the study. The analysis of the study uses SPSS which involves frequency and percentage. The data revealed that Malaysian ESL primary school learners struggle with writing tasks, particularly due to insufficient of vocabulary knowledge. The findings of the study will be valuable to ESL researchers and educators in assisting learners with their writing difficulties. Teachers or researchers can develop appropriate solutions to the issues once the writing issue has been identified.

This paper highlights the association of language use skills with self-confidence as a contributing factor to the determination of expatriate self adaptability in a foreign cultural environment. The objective of this study was to examine whether the skills of using the local language of the host country are considered as a universal skill requirement for improvisation and self-skills among expatriate academics in Malaysian Public Universities. Utilisation of qualitative methods of semi-structured interviews on 35 lecturers with international staff status in four Malaysian Public Universities which were subsequently processed by inductive analysis for dominant and subdominant thematic classifications. The findings prove that the informants utilised language proficiency as a backup to recognise their ability to respond to external stimuli, thus producing positive value to themselves. The proactive process is done by trying to find answers to change and self-transformation while in a foreign country. Studies linking the elements of confidence and self-identity skills among expatriates are often highlighted, but the approach taken is to put the advantage to be utilised on the part of the organisation and not expatriates as the subject of the study. Therefore, the results of this study fulfil the search for answers regarding their identity as an expatriate, including exploring foreign cultures, releasing the culture of the country of origin, developing a network of contacts and assessing their potential and ability to deal with the challenges of life abroad. The direction of future research refers to the addition of value in the expatriate management literature by making basic concepts of interaction such as language proficiency as an element capable of increasing self-confidence and sketching the career development of self-initiated expatriates.

A recent trend has highlighted the need for a personal learning environment (PLE) in education as a system that helps learners take control of and manage their own learning. The current system which focuses on standardized learning support in the form of Learning Management System (LMS) is seen as restrictive and does not allow to accommodate the different needs of learners. Therefore, more language educators have started developing their own PLEs by focusing on two crucial elements: supporting learners’ needs and allowing more learner control. This paper presents an attempt to explore ESL pre-service teachers’ experience via PLE designed to support their writing needs. The researchers hoped that such a positive experience would influence the teachers’ pedagogical strategies and approaches in their teaching once they go into practice. In this qualitative case study, thirty-six third year ESL pre-service teachers at a tertiary education institution embarked on a fourteen-week course via the PLE. Qualitative data were gleaned from focus group discussion transcripts and written reflections. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. Overall, students have positive perceptions towards the PLE by detailing its benefits and usefulness. They also narrated some challenges and proposed suggestions to ensure prolonged engagement. The findings give support to the use of PLE, especially the instructor-made innovation for teaching and learning which allows more learner control and access.

Teaching English as a second language (TESL) in rural schools remains a prominent issue in Malaysia. Many teachers in rural areas struggle with the seemingly insuperable difficulties associated with their underperforming rural schools in English, which is yet to be addressed significantly. This study explores ten English teachers’ sense of self-efficacy of those serving in rural schools. The lived experiences of the participants were explored through in-depth semi-structured interviews. The data gathered were analysed thematically to gain insights into the phenomenon. Three results of this study revealed the rural environmental influence aspects of teachers’ sense of self-efficacy, the context-specific nature of rural teachers’ sense of self-efficacy, and the blended philosophical concepts of social support, unswerving commitment, social obligation, and social-emotional benefits as significant driving forces to retain serving rural schools. The study’s results could contribute incrementally to the advancement of knowledge on TESL in rural schools by providing insights into the subject and context-specific descriptions.

There has been growing evidence that the lack of academic writing skills among university students who learn English as a Second Language (ESL) affects their overall academic performance. Higher education ESL students often find writing academic essays a complex process and hence struggle with academic writing convention issues. However, in order to encourage these students’ to be autonomous in their English academic writing, explicit and supportive instruction is necessary on the teacher’s part. This study aims to investigate thirty Foundation students’ revision activities pre- and post-intervention and whether there are any changes in their reviewing activities after being exposed to the intervention for twelve weeks. The reviewing activities were categories and analysed for inter-correlations. It is found that the students’ revision activities at first seem to concentrate mostly on Surface Changes-Meaning Preserving Changes activities. However, this changes in the second half of the intervention period where they seem to perform more Meaning Changes-Microstructure Changes and the least is Surface Changes-Formal Changes.