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The Platform Development of WeCWI Instructional Tool: A Comparative Systematic Review

The use of the internet for teaching and learning has received overwhelming responses from academics over the recent years. This infusion of digital and multimedia technologies into Malaysian ESL classrooms has considerably altered the ELT methodologies. Mastering English in the digital world is not only limited to knowing the syntactic, pragmatic, and lexical items of the language, but also knowing how to read, write, and communicate in electronic environments. In response to the impact of technology in English language teaching (ELT), limitations of the learning management system (LMS) in fostering second language (L2) writing skill, as well as needs of supplementary web-based instruction (WBI) in UiTM Penang Branch as reported in the past studies, a WBI namely Web-based Cognitive Writing Instruction (WeCWI) is thus proposed in this research. WeCWI is a theoretical and pedagogical framework applied into the design and development of a web-based instructional tool. This study applied ...
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Pronunciation Errors in Mandarin among the Engineering Undergraduates: An Analytical Analysis

Mandarin language has generated a global interest among the non-Chinese students in the 21st century. Mandarin language has also become the favorite third language subject among Malaysian university students. However, many non-native speakers of Mandarin often encountered problems in pronunciation in terms of consonants, vowels, and tones. Mandarin is a tonal language, which the meaning of the word will be changed if the tone is pronounced incorrectly. Since identifying the Hanyu Pinyin pronunciation mistakes is essential and should be prioritised by Mandarin instructors, this study aims to investigate the evidence of pronunciation errors spoken by the students as non-native speakers in the area of consonants, vowels, and tones based on Hanyu Pinyin system. A survey was conducted by distributing questionnaires to undergraduates from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Engineering Campus. The findings from the data analysis show that most students made a lot of errors in pronouncing retrofl...
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English Exit Test (EET) and Competence-Based English Test (CBET) as Verbal Competence Measures for Employability: A Comparative Systematic Review

The issue of unemployment among the graduates is an issue which has come to the attention of the nation so much that it warrants a quick and effective measure taken by the institutions of higher education. The mismatches of expectations from the employers and the graduates’ communicative ability have been a contributing factor to why these graduates face difficulty in being employed. Hence, their verbal competence is one of the many indispensable criteria that are sought after by the employers apart from their hard skills. The purpose of this study is to examine the challenges and opportunities in relation to the English Exit Test (EET) and Competence Based English Test (CBET) Speaking Assessment which are initiated by University Technology MARA and University Kebangsaan Malaysia in gauging the graduates’ English language readiness for their workplace. Based on the systematic review analysis conducted, it can be concluded that both competence tests do have their fair share of hiccups a...
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UiTM Students' Writing Needs, Writing Problems, and Language Courses: A Qualitative Systematic Review of Literature Prior to WeCWI's Course Integration

To tackle the Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) students’ writing problems besides fulfilling the writing needs of UiTM learners and instructors, web-based instruction (WBI) was proposed as a supplementary instructional tool. A hybrid e-framework namely Web-based Cognitive Writing Instruction (WeCWI) was proposed to be adopted for developing WBI for writing performance and critical thinking enhancements. Before embracing WBI as a supplementary instructional tool of an English course, a qualitative systematic review of literature was conducted on the related studies of UiTM students’ writing needs and challenges as well as UiTM English courses. BEL422 Report Writing was identified as the most appropriate course among all the UiTM English courses offered up to 2013 owing to its syllabus, course structure, and assessment components focussing on report writing. Besides, this course was also crucial for the students to acquire their writing competence to communicate effectively in their futu...
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WeCWI: Integrating Language Acquisition and Composition Studies towards Literacy Development

WeCWI is an e-framework grounded on the theoretical-and-pedagogical principles of language acquisition, composition studies, cognitive theories, and e-learning to promote literacy, language, cognitive, and psychological developments. This study aimed to tackle the writing complexity and deficiency of literacy skills among the second language (L2) learners by reviewing the literature on the integration of language acquisition and composition studies to become a hybrid framework. Three fundamental language acquisition theories such as acquisition-learning hypothesis, input hypothesis, and reading hypothesis were adopted in WeCWI. To develop a tool of web-based instruction (WBI) using WeCWI, instructors are encouraged to publish greater functions and more up-to-date reading materials by utilising the web widgets and hypertext, which offer the direct access to specific online reading materials to the learners. This will also promote reading on voluntary basis in informal setting or free re...
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WeCWI Integrated Formula: Empowering Teachers through Adaptive Learning Technology

Web-based Cognitive Writing Instruction (WeCWI) is a theoretical-and-pedagogical multidisciplinary hybrid e-framework formulated to empower teachers through the adaptive learning technology particularly the internet. WeCWI Integrated Formula is the first framework synthesising the principles of language acquisition, cognitive theories, composition studies, and e-learning to construct a hybrid digital framework for developing and designing a web-based instruction (WBI) based on learners’ information processing preferences. The four main theoretical rationales—language acquisition, composition studies, cognitive theories, and e-learning—are seamlessly integrated as the core of WeCWI, which can be summarised into a formula as: (Language Acquisition + Composition Studies + Cognitive Theories) e-Learning = WeCWI. This integrated formula of WeCWI is represented by a Venn diagram. To promote adaptive learning, teachers are encouraged to develop their web-based instructional tools using the we...
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From SIL to WeCWI: Overcoming L2 Learners’ Barriers to Writing through Web-Based Instruction

Rooted from the performance analysis based on the results of an English course offered by Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) in two consecutive semesters, nine L2 writing challenges were identified. These barriers to L2 writing were further analysed and elucidated in a form of chain diagram namely “SIL”, which means system (S), instructor (I), and learner (L). SIL proposes a sequence of deductive remedial actions for writing predicaments. Its learner domain was further scrutinised to examine the writing difficulties faced by UiTM undergraduates as the L2 learners. Based on the qualitative systematic review of the past studies on UiTM students’ writing problems supported by the instructors and learners’ writing needs, seven perspectives of poor writing skills were determined: writing complexity, literacy, proficiency, critical thinking, information literacy, interlanguage, and writing anxiety. Owing to the global impact of the internet, the positive outcomes of web-based writing instructi...
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