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This study aimed to identify the extent to which vocabulary learning strategies influence the results of English writing in UPSR of the post-UPSR learners. The subjects were 267 high-achievers Form 1 learners from four secondary schools who had completed the UPSR in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The purpose of this study was to determine which VLSs was used the most frequently by the post-UPSR learners. Participants completed a VLS questionnaire and the findings revealed the strategies of vocabulary learning the post-UPSR inclined to employ from each category of determination, social, memory, cognitive, and metacognitive. We conclude that while VLSs use should be encouraged in general, instructors may not need to cater to individual vocabulary learning styles.

The reality brought upon by the pandemic has forced educators, language instructors included, to re-evaluate their practice by ensuring that the actual learning takes place and planned objectives are met. In language education programs, equipping future teachers with appropriate knowledge and skills remains as the top priority. In fact, recent literature also highlights the need for teachers to have technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) to cope with the changing demands of online learning and learner diversity. As part of the needs analysis phase to assess students’ TPACK competency, students’ online information searching strategies were investigated by using Information Commitment Survey (Wu & Tsai, 2007) and content analysis of the references list of students’ written coursework and guided reflection. In this case study, the participants were the ESL pre-service teachers in a teacher education program. It was found that the students used multiple web searching strategies such as matching and elaboration strategies. The students also appeared to have ‘mixed’ standards for judging information on the web. The results additionally revealed that students relied heavily on different web resources such as online encyclopaedia, and resources that contain grammar materials, content materials related to their writing topic, citation materials and writing samples that match their writing format. These findings strongly suggest for a more systematic training design of the online writing support should be in a form of a portal of evaluated links to useful resources for ESL writing.

The recent Covid-19 pandemic has changed and impacted the country's education landscape, a paradigm shift from face-to-face teaching and learning style into home-based learning and teaching (PdPR). During the period, teachers had come out with various teaching strategies to assess pupils’ and some of these strategies are still relevant in this current post pandemic education. Speaking skills in the Malaysian Primary ESL classroom are five elements assessed in the Classroom-Based Assessment (CBA). The CBA achievement of a class in a rural school in Kudat, Sabah, showed that most students performed poorly in speaking skills. Based on the teacher's perspective as a researcher, the problem occurred due to the English Language's lack of exposure and usage. It is only spoken during an English class and not practised outside schooling hours. In this paper, the researcher aims to provide a literature review and past studies on enhancing primary ESL students' speaking skills through multimedia technology-assisted project-based learning. After investigating how multimedia technology-assisted project-based learning could improve the students' speaking skills from the literature review, the researcher proposes this study be carried out at a rural government school in Kudat, Sabah. This research aims to investigate students' speaking performance after the implementation of multimedia technology-assisted project-based learning.

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has caused a sudden change in the educational landscape globally and shifted traditional face-to-face classes to open distance learning mode. Due to this transition, it is progressively crucial and of great importance to understand the technostress faced by English language lecturers in adopting open distance learning practices. This phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of eleven English language lecturers from three universities in the southern region of Malaysia regarding the technostress faced in open distance learning practice during the pandemic through the lens of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Fascinatingly, despite the emergency shift to open distance learning, the results have shown that the participants are keen and receptive to the open distance learning deployment. Moreover, due to their Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge competency, the participants agreed that the technostress experienced is considered manageable and did not affect their work performance. This study's results are hoped to offer insights into understanding the unprecedented phenomenon to ensure positive impacts in tertiary education.

Affective factors such as emotion and attitudes have long been identified as contributing factors to success and enjoyment in language learning. With the new movement of education in the new norm, a weightage needs to be focused on the affective dimensions among learners. This study aimed to discover the importance and factors of enjoyment in learning English as a Second Language (ESL) among Malaysian secondary school students. This multisite case study took place in five secondary schools in Malaysia. Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was held among five ESL teachers and an open-ended questionnaire was distributed to 65 students in the respective schools. The findings reveal both teachers and students think enjoyment is important in learning ESL as it bridges up engagement in learning, enhances motivation and for the usefulness of learning the language. Furthermore, the study also discovers the factors of enjoyment in learning ESL namely teacher-factor, sense of achievement and relationship with peers. This study provides valuable information on the of the understudy topic of enjoyment in Malaysian ESL classroom.

Virtual Reality (VR) technology was crucial in aiding remote teaching and learning session during the Covid-19 pandemic. Transitioning to the post pandemic era, VR technologies are deemed as a useful tool to facilitate learning. Several literature reviews have analysed and synthesized the use of VR in education; however, academic activity lacks a recent systematic literature review (SLR) on VR in the field of English as a Second Language Learning (ESL) in the context of Malaysian ESL learning. 13 scholarly manuscripts from 12 journals were retrieved from the year 2011 to 2021, analysed, and synthesized under the following focus: (a) VR technology utilized, the duration of educational activities, and the language learning settings in the Malaysian ESL context; (b) the possible benefits and drawbacks of adopting VR as a teaching tool in the Malaysian ESL classroom; (c) future directions regarding the educational use of VR. The study concluded that VR technologies encourage English language learning; intrinsically motivate pupils to learn; provide convenience for feedback and communication; practicality; and creates an enjoyable authentic classroom environment. However, challenges like lacks of technical support for practitioners; limited internet access; limited application designated for language learning; participants’ unfamiliarity with VR; outdated software and/or hardware; and dearth number of research papers were also identified in this study. It is suggested that in the future, bigger-scale research on main language skills should be done; further research on VR technologies available; increase duration of study; research in other areas and levels of schools, and initiate more experimental studies.