This study is an effort to investigate the adjectives for both English and Malay; their word order positions and how the positions affect the message they convey. This typological study will be of help to learners engaged in acquiring the two languages simultaneously; it enables them to understand the different structures of the languages thus guiding them to deploy the structures better. The research design of this study uses a meaning-based framework, a move away from syntactical investigation. The meaning arising from the use of all the 11 different types of adjectives of both languages remain the focus. The results show a stark contrast of the use of adjectives in English and Malay. A majority of the adjectives in English are prenominal while those of Malay are postnominal. A small number of postnominal adjectives in English and the availability of prenominal adjectives in Malay prove that both types do exist, albeit in limited quantities. The positions of the adjectives in English do affect the message of the tokens. In other words, the prenominal adjectives convey one set of meaning whilst the postnominal another. However, the positions of the adjectives in Malay do not show a similar range in meaning, i.e. the position and the corresponding meanings as found in the Huffman framework do not apply to Malay. The conclusion is quite apparent in that differing positions convey meaning in English; but this is not so in Malay.

This study is an analysis of the production of lexical bundles among L2 learners. The data for the analysis were collected from 40 English as a Second Language (ESL) students’ term papers from Universiti Teknologi Mara Terengganu. The study aims to find out the extent lexical bundles were used by L2 learners in their essays. The frequency of lexical bundles found in the essays was calculated, the types of the bundles were sorted according to their categories and the factors contributing to the use and the avoidance of lexical bundles were identified. The study shows that the L2 writers attempted to produce lexical bundles in their term papers but they were very limited. This may be attributed to cross linguistic influence. In terms of the functional type of bundles produced, the writers produced more referential bundles compared to stance bundles and discourse organizers. There was also evidence that there were students who avoided the use of lexical bundles in their essays. The factors that contributed to this avoidance were lack of exposure, fear of making mistakes and uncertainty. An important pedagogical implication of the study is that lexical bundles should be exposed or taught to students in formal classroom teaching in order to help students produce more understandable and quality writing.

In response to the implementation of the 1994 English curriculum in Indonesia, the national textbook English for Senior High School, Book 3 for the Third Year for Social and Natural Science Programs was published in 1997 as a compulsory core textbook used for the third year high school students (18-19 years old). This study investigated the match between the textbook and the revised syllabus of 1994 curriculum in terms of learning objectives, themes, functional skills and learning activities. It analysed the tasks in the textbook using the checklist adapted from Littlejohn’s task analysis framework. The findings reveal that the textbook which is organized in 16 themes and consisted of 262 tasks (originally 222 tasks) has the following skill distribution: 146 (55.7%) reading tasks, 3 (1.1%) listening tasks, 66 (25.2%) speaking tasks and 47 (18%) writing tasks. It was also found that the match between the tasks and the learning objective categories recommended by the curriculum is 59.5% which means that in terms of learning objectives, the textbook is fairly relevant to the curriculum. The match between the tasks and the recommended themes is 100% which suggests that in terms of themes, the textbook is relevant to the curriculum. In terms of functional skills, the textbook is not relevant to the curriculum since the match between the tasks and the categories of functional skills in the curriculum is only 7.6%. As for learning activities, the textbook is also considered not relevant to the curriculum as the match between the tasks and the learning activities recommended by the curriculum is only 30%. The results show that the textbook should be replaced with a new one, relevant to the curriculum to include categories that fulfill the recommended learning objectives, themes, functional skills and learning activities.

Muslim women are often portrayed and perceived in a negative light in the dominant Western narrative, especially in the post-9/11 era. Western misconceptions of Islam have proliferated a distorted identity of Muslims. For the Muslim diaspora, struggling with hyphenated identity has further complicated their image as Muslims, which is especially the case with Muslim women. This study examines the process of identity formation of contemporary diasporic Muslim women living in America. The two works chosen are Mohja Kahf’s The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf (2006) and Umm Zakiyyah’s Realities of Submission (2008). The discussion is based on each writer’s representation of the Muslim self with various themes including challenging the Western stereotypes of Muslims, confronting the identity crisis as well as overcoming differences between culture and religion. The novels are analyzed as bildungsroman texts, as this study discusses the characters’ spiritual journey and the development of Muslim identity. The study demonstrates how Islam gives Muslim women a sense of identity through the wearing of hijab and performing salah (prayer). Apart from examining the authors’ ability to counter the perceptions of Muslims that are often negative, this study investigates how women are empowered in the selected novels by way of showing that their characters are able to exercise their volitions on issues raised within the texts while maintaining their identity as Muslims.

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Autobiography documenting religious conversions has reportedly been around since the fourth century. Today this genre has expanded to include writings of various formats and from various faiths. Prominent convert narratives by male Muslims like Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali are now being followed by those by female converts. The latter provide counter-narratives to the pervasive misery memoirs, with more representative and unbiased insights into Muslims’ religious and cultural practices and how they see the world. Narratives by Muslim converts from the West are especially important as they seek to bridge the cultural gap between the Western and Muslim worlds. Using the Dialogical Self Theory (DST) and Islamic concept of the self, this research aims to examine self-representation as described in the works of the selected authors: Lena Winfrey Seder’s The Metamorphosis of a Muslim: Autobiography of my Conversion and Kristiane Backer’s From MTV to Mecca: How Islam Inspired my Life. In addition to analyzing their characterization, this study will also look at the authors’ emplotment methods and discuss the significance of both these narrative elements to the autobiographies as the authors adapt their I-positions to speak to a heterogeneous audience.

Research to present effective approaches to language teachin is an ongoing movement. This study explores the notion of a learner-centred technique of leaning English and explains the relevance of using literary materials as a resource for language learning. The study examines how students can have a new perspective of learning through the cooperative language learning technique and provides tasks based on literary materials as transmission model of teaching to a process orientated participatory model, seeing learners as acttive agents in their learning. Classroom observations, interviewss and questionnaire were the instruments used in this research. The observations examined interactions under foru main headings: Pedagogical Moves, Social Skills, Rhetorical Acts and Teacher Talk. Fourteen different categories were examined. The questaionnaire inquired into the learners` learning preferences and the interviews and certain questions in the questionnaire probed learners` attitudes towards the use of literry materials in the ESL classroom. The t-Test statistical analysis of the data for observations demonstratied significant differences for Pedagogical Moves, Social Skills and Rhetorical Acts. In the Teacher Talk group there was no significant difference. The analysis suggests that learners employ interactions that involve pedagogical moves, social skills and rhetorical acats for the completion of tasks under the cooperative language learning. The results imply that there is a positive inclination towards the learner-centred cooperative mode of language learning. Next, the paired t-Test results for the questionnaire data indicated learners` preference for the cooperative learning technique. To analyse students` attitudes towards the use of literary materials in the language classroom, a percentage calculation indicated thaat 70% of the subjects preferred the inclusion of literary materials in the ESL classroom while 30% were not in favour. There are some pedagogical implications from the findings of this research. The teaching implications provides in this study fo not intend to be exhaustive but as a guide for teachers wishing to take this aspect of teaching.

One of the main problems faced by both teachers and learners in English for Academic Purposes pertains to the question of which words are worth focusing during teaching and learning. This corpus-based lexical study aimed to explore the use of words in Coxhead’s (2000) ‘A New Academic Word List (AWL)’ in academic journal articles in the field of Islamic studies. Around 472,621 word corpus, called the Islamic Academic Research Articles (IARA) corpus, was created for this study. The corpus consisted of 66 research articles written in English that were published in more than 10 different Islamic academic journals. In order to simulate rich natural contexts, these articles were selected for being both authentic and academic covering a wide range of topics in the field of Islamic studies. The study found that the most frequent 317 AWL words which occurred in the IARA corpus was only 56% of Coxhead’s AWL of 570. This finding points to the need for a special AWL for students of Islamic studies. The findings suggest the need to produce field-specific academic word lists incorporating all frequent academic lexical items necessary for the expression of the rhetoric of the specific research area. The findings also revealed that some of the words which were found in the present study were not found in Coxhead’s influential Academic Word List. This may be due to the general nature of the AWL. This suggests that vocabulary needs of students in the Islamic studies are characteristically different from those of students in other disciplines. Researchers and teachers therefore need to deal with these learners separately. Key words: English for Academic Purposes (EAP), Corpus Based Study, Islamic Academic Research Articles (IARA) Corpus, Word Family.

Creative works – especially life writings – by female writers with Muslim names that can be categorized as ‘misery genre’ are quite prominent in current literary discussion. Such literary texts portray Muslim women as victims of domestic abuse, forced/child marriage, rape, marginalization, societal discrimination and lack of freedom and educational opportunities under Muslim patriarchy. In contemporary British postcolonial literature, there is a tendency among certain writers with Muslim backgrounds to caricature and misrepresent Muslim women and thus misrepresent Muslim societies. Conversely, another group of writers seem to counteract such narratives and show unconditional allegiance to their faith and culture. Based on this observation, this thesis explores the major issues in Monica Ali’s Brick Lane (2003) and Shelina Janmohamed’s Love in a Headscarf (2009) and investigates their perception and representation of diasporic Muslim women in Britain using postcolonial criticism. It also focuses on major contemporary issues involving the Muslim diaspora in Britain and the religion of Islam as portrayed in the two novels.

Although this study examines the post-colonial theory, it investigates colonial hang-ups that exist in Malaysia during the colonial days and also in the contemporary society by studying the works of the Raslan brothers and making reference to Franz Fanon’s works, particularly the methods he uses to analyse postcolonialism. The findings will be based on library research and interviews with the Raslan brothers to gain additional insights into their perception of postcolonialism .The study will identify the colonial hang-ups of the characters who populate the texts and analyse them in order to give an insight into the Malaysian postcolonial experience. It will be necessary to compare the types of colonial hang-ups that the two brothers write about and explain the similarities and differences. Kam Raslan seems to concentrate on the hang-ups of people who came of age during the colonial era while Karim discusses the hang-ups of contemporary society.

One of the most distinguished Albanian writers, Ismail Kadare survived as a writer in Albania under the strict socialist regime. He now lives and writes in Paris. This study offers a critical view of tradition and modernity in two of his novels, The General of the Dead Army and Doruntine. It tries to see what features of these novels make them representative Albanian narratives and to what extent they reconcile tradition arid modernity. The study endeavours to provide an assessment of the characters and themes in Ismail Kadare`s novels, with a special reference to the treatment of characters. It off~rs a discussion of resistance and survival as central themes in Kadare`s novels with special references to The General of the Dead Army. The study sees the relationship between folklore and literature particularly in Doruntine and The General of the Dead Army. Kadare`s novels can be differentiated from their subjects and the ways of realizing them. The study considers the author`s use of fantasy, imagination, dramatic and tragic elements, and other means of expression. It has also a treatment of the main concepts in Doruntine in the light of Islamic concepts.

This study intends to examine the consequences of colonial and postcolonial experiences in the understanding of an individual’s culture and identity. Colonialism changes the political and cultural landscape of a society, and thus it influences the perception of one’s cultural identity. This thesis aims to analyse the impact of those experiences towards one’s comprehension of self-identity. The framework of postcolonial theory and the theory of hybridity will be applied in the analysis of Shirley Geok-lin Lim’s Joss and Gold and Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake. These theories will be the premise used in understanding the identity formation of a postcolonial individual.

As observed by many scholars, electoral politics in Malaysia is conducted along ethnic lines. With reference to the recent 2013 general elections, it witnessed a further erosion of racial relations between, especially, the Malays and the Chinese. Immediately after the polling results were released, it was so aghast, to the extent that national leaders openly described it as a “Chinese Tsunami” which, on the other hand, unexpectedly triggered a further round of fierce racial disputes. The exchange of words has been recorded integrally in the print media; the media were in the front line to raise issues, disseminate information, as well as to influence voters’ decisions. Hence, the current study is designed to investigate the humanization and dehumanization features in the performance of actors from two notable ethnicities, the Chinese and the Malays by going through a semiotic analysis on their viewpoints and comments about each other in two mainstream print media in Malaysia: the New Straits Times and the Sin Chew Daily. The linguistic fragments were culled from both dailies published two weeks before and after the 13th Malaysia general elections (from 21 April to 19 May, 2013). As a result, four elements have been scrutinized and it is revealed that both actors employed enormous factuality and high identification signs, a small quantity of hedging devices, and a larger proportion of distrust performatives than trust performatives.

Learning a second language requires a lot of effort as the new language might possess distinct features which require the users to cautiously consider the most suitable linguistic rules and features. The ability to consider the rules is affected by the acquisition of language skills, especially the awareness on linguistic areas. Sufficient amount of awareness especially, will be helpful in assisting the language users make informed decisions when using linguistic features. This study focuses on a type of linguistic awareness; the morphological awareness and specific attention is given to derivational forms; the suffixes. Kieffer and Lesaux’s (2007) definition of derivational morphological awareness as well as Tyler and Nagy’s (1987) derivational knowledge categories have been the theories which guided this present study. The respondents of this study were 44 Malaysian English language teacher trainees. It aims to find out their levels of derivational morphological awareness by examining their uses of derivational suffix forms in academic essays as well as their performance in Derivational Suffix Test (DST). In addition, the study employed the Think Aloud Protocol (TAP) in the attempt to gather information on the implicit strategies used to answer the DST. The study contributes to the theoretical understanding of the varied usage of the derivational suffix forms. The findings indicate that the teacher trainees could significantly perform when they encountered known words but deteriorated performance is observed when they faced unknown, nonsensical words. It can be deduced that derivational knowledge and awareness could be improved by using explicit instructions and giving exposures to language learners. The findings of this study have also unfolded the teacher trainees’ level of morphological knowledge and awareness so the results would assist them in making informed decisions of the derivational processes involved as well as in providing pedagogical support when it comes to their turns in instructing future students.

This study aims to shed light on the use of high cognitive questions, as a learner strategy in developing critical thinking skills, as well as facilitating comprehension and production of the second language among non-native second language students. The use of high cognitive questions in non-native student discussions was examined. The focus of the study was to determine whether there is a statistically significant mean difference in students' comprehension and production of the second language and critical thinking skills when they were exposed to questioning treatments. Two groups of 10 non-native Malaysian students participated. One group was trained in incorporating high cognitive questions in group discussions while the other was not. Following this, both groups read a text, discussed and then summarized it. The discussion was recorded for transcription. The summaries were rated by two English teachers using the Communicative Profile Scale evaluation instrument to assess the students' performance in the second language. The transcribed discussions were assessed using the UNCG (University of North Carolina at Greensboro) evaluation instrument to investigate the students' critical thinking abilities, which were the ability to 'analyze and interpret', 'draw logical inferences', 'evaluate and justify inferences', 'make deductive and inductive reasoning'. Paired T-tests were used to interpret the results. The study showed that, the experimental group demonstrated a higher performance in their comprehension and production of the second language compared to the control group. The experimental group also demonstrated better results in their critical thinking abilities than the control group. It is, therefore, suggested that teachers should use high cognitive questions to help increase second language students' understanding and production of the language as well as develop their critical thinking skills.

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The integration in internet has affected all functions of the library, particularly the reference services. In the reference department, this integration has led to the utilization of new tools and methods for providing information to library users. It is a new trend that most of the libraries are following today. This study investigated the effect of the internet on reference services in Malaysian academic libraries. The objective of the study was to find out how the integration of internet into the library has affected reference professionals and services. The study also investigated the perception of respondents of the importance of internet in the reference work. The study used a questionnaire-based survey method for data collection. The instrument was pilot tested to ensure its realibility and effectiveness. Reference librarian of 9 Malaysian academic libraries participated in this study. Seventy questionnaires were distributed and 40 filled-in questionnaires were received back. The study found that the internet has positively contributed to reference services. A majority of the respondents affirmed the importance of the internet in today `s reference work. They believed that the internet has enabled them to work more effectively and efficiently. However, the study found that the internet as well as traditional reference souces were used by the respondents for answering reference queries. A majority of them disagreed that the internet should replace traditional reference tools. It was also found that 95% of the respondents felt that reference librarians should posses good internet use skills for providing effective reference services.

The present study sought to evaluate a pedagogical approach for an English language proficiency course. It sought to investigate an understanding of the semantics of the English modal system among a selected group of Thai EFL learners. It further evaluated whether the use of authentic materials is effective in teaching the English modal system. The research was conducted at Warakaminnuboon School, a secondary school in Bangkok, Thailand. There were 30 subjects who participated in this study. The study employed a time-series design. The subjects had pretests and posttests. The pretests, which were administered during the first two weeks, required the subjects to write essays on expository topics. All the subjects received the treatment (the use of authentic materials) after the pretest period. After the treatment, the subjects were required to write two further essays during the posttest period. A comparison of the means using SPSS paired t-test was performed to investigate research question. In dealing with this, the means of the occurrence of the coherent messages using English modals were compared between the pretests and posttests. The findings of the study were (1) The use of English modal system displayed by EFL students was at best sporadic. The subjects in the study seemed to send as many incoherent messages as coherent messages indicating that they did not have a real understanding of the English modal system. (2) The use of authentic materials had a significant effect in helping learners reduce the incorrect use of English modals as there was a significant difference in the means of using modals in the subjects' essays written before and after treatment. Findings were interpreted in terms of existing research on the use of authentic materials. Limitation and teaching implication are also highlighted.