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Purpose: This study examined the types of written corrective feedback provided to ESL students in writing classes in Malaysian secondary schools, and their perceptions towards the provision of written corrective feedback in the Malaysian context. Methodology: A survey questionnaire was administered randomly among 720 Form Four students from 10 secondary schools in Penang. The questionnaire was based on a Likert scale and responses were analysed using descriptive statistics. Findings: Results showed that most learners benefited from and preferred direct feedback, and tended to focus on form such as grammar, paragraph organisation, content and clarity of ideas. Students preferred this form of feedback as they were able to understand errors more clearly. It was found that most students were unable to self-regulate their own errors; a majority could not locate their own errors and had become passive learners within the Malaysian schooling system. Significance: The study is significant to Malaysian secondary schools in its effects, depicting the many forms of corrective feedback available in the ESL context that can be employed in school besides the popularized direct feedback used within the syllabus.

The coverage of female athletes in sports media has been claimed to exhibit prejudice in favor of male athletes. Therefore, they promote the dominance of traditional masculine hegemony. Accordingly, the present study examines Al-Jazeera's coverage of Arab female athletes participating in the Rio Olympics. The study, therefore, aims to identify Al-Jazeera's strategies for covering Arab female athletes in selected online stories and their ideological perspectives in terms of "Self" or public and "Other" or private dichotomy. Furthermore, it aims to examine the feminist critical discourse analysis perspective in the gendered social practices of the Eastern world. This study analyses two Al-Jazeera news stories using feminist critical discourse analysis. Feminist critical discourse analysis challenges social practices related to gender stereotypes. Occasionally, gender inequalities are manifested explicitly as well as implicitly. Patriarchy persists in many social institutions and among women (and men) globally. The researchers implement Lazar's (2018) Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis. Thus, sports news ideological methods are analyzed using positive "in-group" and negative "out-group" dichotomy. The current research findings indicate that the patriarchal society has been transformed with respect to women's empowerment. Arab female athletes take place in public life as their male counterparts. However, the analyzed data demonstrated Arab women's gender resistance to the stereotypical gender norms. However, the current research is essential for revealing the progress of gender-based hierarchal social norms. Deconstructing conventional unequal gender roles is a key component of this research project's contribution to developing and promoting gender equality in Arabic culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaysian tertiary students are reluctant readers of English texts, a condition which can impede the development of their English proficiency. In any ESL/EFL reading programme, particularly programmes for lower proficiency students, it is essential to provide materials that students can comprehend without difficulty. This paper discusses the respective roles of authentic and simplified texts in ESL/EFL settings, and observes students' perceptions towards the use of graded readers. 28 Malaysian undergraduates (remedial English language learners) read a series of graded readers from the Oxford Progressive English Readers collection, and questionnaires were utilised to record their perceptions. Primarily, it was found that: 1) perceptions regarding the graded readers were encouraging, and 2) using suitable reading materials can be beneficial, particularly in terms of developing a more positive attitude towards reading in English. The findings provide better direction for the implementation of reading programmes, and are relevant to both language teachers and course planners.

In Malaysia's present scenario, competency in English is not a surety despite it being part of the curriculum from the very start of primary education. In view of the importance of lexical knowledge in language development and the hypothesised superiority of pictorial stimuli, the present study tested the effectiveness of an image-driven intervention for receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge development among Malaysian Year 1 students. A quasi-experimental design was utilised, involving Experimental and Control groups (totalling 159 participants). Three tiers of testing were administered -- pre-testing, post-testing to measure for recall, and delayed post-testing for retention. The Experimental group experienced five imagedriven sessions designed for lexical development (one session per week, 30 minutes per session). The Control group was not accorded the same treatment. Approximately 90% of the participants belonged to the B40 (Bottom 40%) group -- the group with the lowest income level in Malaysia. Despite the lack of statistical significance, our findings on the whole show development with respect to the participants' lexical knowledge after experiencing the image-driven intervention, with raw scores clearly indicating receptive and productive vocabulary improvement at both the recall and retention stages. The study's findings extend the current knowledge base, especially within the Malaysian domain which suffers from an unfortunate lack of similar studies focusing on lower primary learners. Also, the results appear promising (with only five treatment sessions) and pave the way for more research concerning the effectiveness of the intervention among young ESL/EFL learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examining the translations of Quranic verses related to women might clarify claims that Islam oppresses women, and in which women are abused and deprived of their rights. Furthermore, the outcomes of a translation process can be influenced by different choices, which may lead to loss or gain in meaning. In this study, five of the more known and comprehensive verses pertaining to women were selected via purposive sampling and their English renditions by two translators were analyzed using a model of translation criticism proposed by Farahzad (2012). The translations by M.M. Pickthall (1930) and S.M. Sarwar (2011) formed part of the corpus. Ibn Kathir's (2003) exegesis was utilized to determine each verse's meaning/interpretation. The renditions were compared against the original (Arabic) versions, and analyzed at the textual level subsumed under the dimension of translational choices. The analysis also took into account the translators' different backgrounds; instances of disparity are apparent in terms of translational choices and a portion may be inferred to have occurred because of the translators' backgrounds. However, these instances are minimal. Overall, the findings indicate disparities in choice of lexis, grammar, and translation strategies. Literal translation was also found to be a dominant strategy, in addition to inaccuracies in meaning conveyance. To date, there is no available translational research similar to the present study in terms of corpus and design. This study and its findings are of relevance not only to religious units, but also to translators, educators and scholars engaged in language and translational research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the issue of Iran's nuclear weapons (INWs); specifically, how the issue is contextualized in political speeches by two world leaders. The presidents, of the United States of America (Donald Trump) and Iran (Hassan Rouhani), present us with contrastive rhetoric and in this paper, we compared their descriptions of INWs. In this critical discourse analysis (CDA) study, we also sought the possible reasons for differences between their descriptions. The selected corpus are Trump's 2018 speech on Iran's nuclear weapons program at the United National General Assembly (UNGA) and Rouhani's 2017 speech on the same issue at the UNGA. These speeches were chosen because of their stance categories and degrees of subjectivity. Jäger's (2001) CDA model is employed for the purpose of linguistic and contextual analyses. Additionally, Toulmin's (2003) argumentative models are employed to identify the linguistic tools in both speech texts. The findings reveal contrastive topoi between the descriptions made by the two presidents. Essentially, Trump described INWs as posing a threat to Americans, global peace, and security. Rouhani, meanwhile, reclassified the meaning of INWs, steering it away from the realm of phobia and extending it to include the topoi of self-defense. The key implication here is this: world leaders do propagandize ideologies regardless of the effects of war, and this can be achieved by employing the language of fear for discourse is the crux of political jousting and of power relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Play is a social-centred process, able to boost motivation and promote learning across all levels and ages. With the growing push for creativity in the classroom as well as the application of effective technology in teaching and learning, it can be a daunting task for educators to find fitting competitive or game-based learning platforms. Foremost, educators need to consider elements such as motivation and whether the platform is likely to foster and reinforce learning. In the present study, a cohort of undergraduates at a public university in Malaysia were exposed to the use of Kahoot!, a game-based learning platform, during their weekly lectures for one semester. The participants were students of English for the Media, which covers theoretical and practical dimensions. The latter dimension includes the learning and application of media language features and devices. Survey data (51 respondents) on the whole, indicated that the students found Kahoot! to be beneficial in terms of: 1) inducing motivation as well as engagement, and 2) fostering and reinforcing learning (for both theoretical and practical aspects). The 33-item questionnaire created by the researchers was also tested for reliability, with returned values indicating high internal consistency, thus making the instrument a reliable option for use in future studies. The findings of this study are of relevance to researchers, educators, course designers, and designers of game-based learning applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]