This paper reports on the washback effects of Malaysia's School-Based Assessment (SBA) on Form 4 students after almost a decade of its implementation in the country. It critically examines how SBA has affected Form 4 students' overall perceptions about the learning of the English language at school. This study also investigates the challenges that…

Purpose: Drawing on the perspectives of cultural capital theory, this study investigated the impact of international internships on the performance of Japanese undergraduates on the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) using a between-group pretest-posttest experimental design. Design/methodology/approach: Students participating…

Background: As technology continues to advance, language acquisition methodologies have increasingly been integrated into computer-assisted language learning (CALL) systems. In the context of Chinese language acquisition, characters are structured in three phases: the overall character, its components, and its strokes. Proficiency in identifying…

The central foundation of knowledge is through grasping what is being read. Therefore, it is significant to recognise the difficulty level of a reading text for better and comprehensive understanding. The present study is an attempt to identify the word frequency level and lexical coverage of the Malaysian University English Test (MUET) reading…

A gloss refers to a short definition or explanation of the meaning of a word in a text that can assist learners in reading comprehension and vocabulary learning. This study aims to investigate how glosses in English academic texts affect the reading behaviour of ESL undergraduates while reading is taking place. In addition, it also examines the…

Few studies have investigated the detailed procedure of systematically delivering and teaching metacognitive strategies in higher education. This study investigates whether explicit training in metacognitive strategies could improve undergraduates' online reading comprehension over the pandemic. The results of this study contribute to teacher…

Embracing gamification in education is, indeed, inevitable, especially with the arrival of the millennials whose lives are greatly influenced by digital technologies and favor learning in a fun, interactive, and engaging environment. Quizizz, a gamified educational tool, has gradually gained the interest of researchers and stakeholders in…

Background/purpose: Game-based learning is becoming increasingly popular among educators in higher institutions. However, it can be a daunting task for educators to ascertain which of the currently available game-based learning platforms best suits their learners' needs. This study explored the suitability of Kahoot! as one of the most commonly…

It has been argued that successful professional development efforts, especially in assessment-literacy, need to address emotional components and the existence of implicit conceptions in order to raise consciousness and ultimately transform practice (Xu and Brown, 2016: p. 156). Experiential approaches have been shown to be highly effective for…

The Malay language writing system is alphabetic and orthographically transparent. This study aimed to determine whether phonological processing skills predict Malay word-level literacy acquisition in Chinese children from a national-type Chinese primary school in Malaysia. A correlational study among 113 Year 1 Chinese children who are non-native…

Studies have found that morphology awareness could assist writers to increase productive vocabulary (e.g. Green et al., 2003; McCutchen & Stull, 2015), reduce vocabulary errors (e.g. Karakas, 2012; Ririn, 2010), and produce complex sentence structures using various forms of words. Postgraduate students as second language users of English (L2)…

Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has compelled educational institutions to explore alternatives to face-to-face instruction. The primary objective of this study is to identify the teacher's role in the English argumentative writing performance of low proficiency university students via WhatsApp. In this case study, data were collected from multiple…