This article is based on the premise that mandated reading in literature classrooms may be perceived as an imposition and disliked by students. Attempts to address that scenario have suggested that text selection should be given more consideration to promote reading engagement, particularly by choosing texts which are familiar to the lifeworlds of…

The authors of this paper argue that to promote multicultural education, multicultural literature can be a very useful tool. Since the ultimate goal of multicultural education is to achieve a more equal and more inclusive society, the literature of Southeast Asia, regarded as the true "minority" literature, should be seriously taken into…

This study examines how pre-service teachers assess the appropriateness of literary texts used by high school students in terms of learners' age, linguistic needs, and language proficiency. It also aims to determine the relevance of the texts used to learners' cultural understanding. The participants in this study were five pre-service teachers…

Literature instruction may serve multiple functions. This case study aimed at investigating the perceptions on the use of online literature circles among 62 first year Teaching English as a Second Language pre-service teachers in a literature course at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. The participants were assigned to read and participate in online…

The importance of critical thinking is championed in education, but it is also acknowledged that developing critical thinking is challenging particularly in a context like Malaysia where being critical often comes with negative connotations. This article details an attempt to develop reflective critical thinking in the discipline-specific study of…

Teaching and learning literature could be a daunting task for both instructors and learners. It requires teachers to employ suitable approaches and methodologies to ensure the effectiveness of the lesson. This serves as the main purpose of this study which is to discover the approaches employed by literature teachers. In addition, three…

This article explores some of the complexities involved in the act of localizing English literature as a school subject. Informed by Goodson and Marsh's stages of subject development, I explore the ways in which post-16 English literature was localized in Malaysia from an introduced and mythologized subject entitled "English" to its…

Purpose: The study aims to (1) review the literature that analyses the relevance of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives in the teaching of creative and critical thinking among students in Malaysia, and (2) identify missing aspects in Bloom's Taxonomy vis a vis the indigenous context, important to promote creative and critical thinking among…

As a multi ethnic country, Malaysia consists of three major ethnic groups mainly Malays, Chinese, and Indians with unity as its building block. Although education is seen as the best medium for the three major ethnic groups to work together, contemporary research shows that there is lack of intercultural understanding among these three ethnic…

As part of Malaysia's aspirations to achieve developed nation status by 2020, and become a key player in the global economy, the government has sought to improve the English language proficiency of its citizens while maintaining the status and significance of the Malay Language as the national language. Recent strategies have involved…

This study aimed to identify the approaches and strategies employed by teachers in teaching the literature component to less proficient students in Forms 1 and 2 in selected secondary schools in Kelantan, Malaysia. The study was conducted in 18 rural schools. Triangulation involving the questionnaire as the primary data and classroom observation…

Discusses the use of the original text of Shakespeare's "Macbeth," a simplified version, and a comic-book version of the play in a college-level English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) course. The results indicate that multiple versions of a text can help offset the shortcomings of using only the original text or a simplified version. (three…