Browsing by Author "Nur Hazwani Hanafi"

Pronunciation is an important aspect of language that needs to be taught in classroom, yet this aspect of language is often given little attention and it is one of the most difficult problems to be handled. Therefore, there is a need for the students to find their own pronunciation learning strategies so that they will be able to help themselves in learning correct pronunciation that leads to an intelligible and comprehensible communication. The objective of this study was to identify pronunciation learning strategies reportedly used by ESL learners and to observe if ten selected strategies were used in spontaneous pronunciation. The data were collected reportedly using a set of pronunciation learning strategies questionnaires, observation and an interview with pronunciation samples elicited from a group of thirty-four Form four ESL learners. Results from the questionnaire data showed that learners from rural areas tend to avoid using the target language in terms of pronouncing or speaking. This conclusion was made based on high percentages of the students who preferred the input-pronunciation strategies compared to the output-pronunciation strategies. The observation data showed that the students actually used a number of outputpronunciation strategies, for example, “I speak and read slower” and “immediate selfcorrection” to complete the tasks given to them. However, “willing to guess” (inputpronunciation strategy) is still the most used strategy. The interview results showed that the students did agree that they mostly used “guessing” strategies (inputpronunciation strategies) in obtaining new information. The researcher found that there was no discrepancy between the strategies reportedly used by the students and their actual use of the pronunciation strategies in the given pronunciation tasks. The low percentages of output-pronunciation learning strategies usage compared to inputpronunciation strategies are worrying since this could mean that the students are not able to speak in the target language correctly.

This research sought to explore teachers' practices in teaching critical reading through literature, their perceptions of their knowledge and capabilities to teach critical reading, and the challenges they faced in teaching critical reading. Also, this research investigated students' difficulties in responding to literary texts. The participants (16 teachers and 20 students) for this study were selected from one urban and one rural school in Selangor. Two types of instruments were developed and used for the data collection procedures: the first type was a checklist to understand teachers' practices and approaches in teaching critical reading in the literature classroom. And the second type of instrument was interview questions for the students and teachers. The findings indicated that the urban and rural schools' students faced similar difficulties in responding to literature texts due to i) lack of comprehension and ii) lack of exposure to the English language and its culture. Also, in exploring teachers' practices in teaching critical reading, this study found that both urban and rural teachers employed all the approaches in teaching literature: Moral-philosophical approach, personal-response approach, information-based approach, Paraphrastic approach, Stylistic approach and language-based approach. The following findings pointed out that the teachers have the knowledge of critical reading/ thinking but lack the confidence to teach the skills, unfamiliar with the skills, and know-how to teach but need more training. Furthermore, it was found that both urban and rural school teachers agreed that students' proficiency levels in English were one of the challenges. Other challenges were; teachers' role, students' attitude, class size, exam-oriented learning, do not relate to real-life and time constraint. Additionally, this research also revealed students' challenges as perceived by the teachers in responding critically to literature texts, such as 1) students have difficulty in expressing their opinions and views, 2) lack of proficiency in English and negative attitude towards reading and literature 3) lack the motivation, 4) difficult topics, 5) inability to relate to real-life, 6) inability to self-correct and improve themselves and 7) burdened by homework.