Pusat Pengajian Bahasa, Literasi dan Terjemahan - Tesis

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Development Of A Formative Assessment Regime For Chinese-english Interpreter Training And Its Effects On Academic Achievement, Motivation, And Collaboration
(2024-11)
Yan,Da
In China’s interpreter training programs, efforts to systematically develop and enact a formative assessment regime has been rarely documented in the extant body of scholarship. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of the applicability and impact of formative assessment regime, the present study adopted a multi-phase approach to explore the development, implementation, and learned lessons of a formative assessment regime in an interpreter training program at Xinyang Agriculture and Forestry University, a focal and representative institution of higher education in China. The researcher recruited 129 second-year interpreter learners, 7 lecturers, and 10 experts as participants in the study. Methodologically, an embedded experimental design was adhered to in the study to comprehensively include the pre-intervention, intervention, and post-intervention phases within a unified research framework. For the pre-, and post-intervention phases, the research used in-depth interview and focus group discussions to obtain viewpoints and understandings of trainees and trainers, and Delphi method for evaluative judgement of the experts. For the intervention phase, mixed-method quasi experimental approach was chosen to examine the effects of the developed formative assessment regime on the academic achievement, motivation, and collaboration in interpreter training, which were measured through a summative interpreting achievement test (SIAT), an interpreter learning motivation questionnaire (ILMQ), and naturalistic observation of classroom conversations respectively.
The Effect Of Blended Learning And critical Thinking On Tertiary EFL Argumentative Writing In China
(2024-10)
Wang, Yuling
With the rapid development of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), the blended learning method is widespread in English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) instruction. It is viable for tertiary English instructors to utilise online platforms like WeChat and Pigai.org to integrate face-to-face instruction, online learning, and critical thinking training to improve EFL argumentative writing. As no single standard for blending exists, more research reports on blended learning cases are needed. This study aims to examine the effect of blended learning and critical thinking on EFL students’ performance in argumentative writing, and the factors that influence students’ argumentative writing performance in a blended learning environment were explored in the current study. This study used a mixed research method on 66 firstyear undergraduates majoring in English at a university in Chongqing, China. These participants were from two intact classes randomly assigned to the control (N=33) and experimental (N=33) groups. The data on critical thinking skills and writing performance were measured by argumentative writing pre- and post-tests, and the data on influencing factors were measured through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The T-test and Pearson Correlation were used to analyse the quantitative data collected from writing tests and questionnaires. Coding and thematic analysis were employed to analyse the qualitative data from semi-structured interviews. After the intervention, a significant improvement was found in the writing scores of the experimental group.The findings of this study also indicated a significant positive correlation between critical thinking skills and EFL argumentative writing performance in a blended learning setting. Qualitative results showed that the internal factors (such as psychological factors, learning objectives, and skills) and external factors (such as rules, community, division of labor, and devices) influenced EFL students’ writing in blended learning contexts. Moreover, the findings in the current study suggest that the influencing factors (such as subject, rules, community, division of labor, and object) in a blended learning environment have different degrees of positive correlation with students’ writing performance. These findings provide new perspectives to EFL writing instruction, encouraging educators to be more flexible in blending different technologies and critical thinking training in practice to foster students’ writing competence better.
The Effect Of Written Corrective Feedback On Grammatical Accuracy Of Passive Voice Tenses And Unaccusative Verbs Of Pakistani Esl Undergraduates
(2023-02)
Muhammad, Mujtaba Syed
The impetus for undertaking the current study was that the literature on written corrective feedback (WCF) is replete with studies that have examined the efficacy of WCF on passive voice tenses and unaccusative verbs (trained and untrained), despite the challenges English language learners face in the construction of these grammatical structures. Therefore, the current study was conducted to investigate the effects of WCF on the grammatical accuracy of passive voice tenses (present, past, and perfect) and unaccusative verbs (trained and untrained) of Pakistani ESL undergraduate learners. The study has three aims:1) examining whether the provision of WCF improves the grammatical accuracy of passive voice tenses; 2) examining whether the provision of WCF improves the grammatical accuracy of unaccusative verbs (trained and untrained); 3) examining which type of WCF is most effective in helping Pakistani ESL undergraduates improve the grammatical accuracy of passive voice tenses and unaccusative verbs (trained and untrained).
Critical Discourse Analysis On The Representation Of The Orang Asli In The Media: A Comparative Study
(2023-09)
Wong, Ka Chun
Research concerning the representation of the Orang Asli in the media has generally revealed representational patterns that revolve around pejorative and stereotypical depictions. Most of the existing research has mainly examined the community’s representation in mainstream news outlets whereas studies concerning alternative news outlets have received little attention. Thus, this study focuses on examining the representation of the Orang Asli by a comparison between the country’s most frequented mainstream (The Star) and alternative (Malaysiakini) news outlets from a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach. The news reports were examined using Fairlclough’s (1995b) Three-Dimensional Framework together with the integration of Halliday and Matthiessen’s (2014) Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and van Dijk’s (1998a) Theory of Ideology. A total of 12 news reports were selected from The Star and Malaysiakini respectively and were examined according to the three levels of analysis namely the micro (lexical and transitivity structures), meso (intertextuality), and macro levels (sociocultural practices and ideology) as outlined in Fairclough’s (1995b) framework. The findings at the micro and meso level show that the Orang Asli were portrayed to be traditional, dependent, problematic, and underdeveloped by both news outlets. This study also found that the positive actions of the authorities were emphasised whereas the negative characteristics of the Orang Asli were accentuated thus resulting in the ideological polarisation of “Us versus Them”. However, the findings also revealed that Malaysiakini did represent the voices of the Orang Asli more frequently as compared to The Star.
Nigerians’ Attitudes Towards The Imitation Of Received Pronunciation Accent In Nigerians’ News Reading
(2023-09)
Hussaini, Wakkai Hosanna
Using explanatory sequential design of mixed-methods, this research investigated Nigerians’ attitudes towards the imitation of Received Pronunciation accent in Nigerians’ news reading. There have been scarce field-based studies conducted on Nigerians’ attitudes towards English in Nigeria. The few studies conducted on the field only looked at Nigerians’ attitudes towards Received Pronunciation without focusing on the Nigerians’ attitudes towards the imitation of Received Pronunciation accent in Nigerians’ news reading. Therefore, the Nigerians’ attitudes towards the imitation of Received Pronunciation accent in Nigerians’ news reading formed the object of this study, with the objective of evaluating both the inter-speaker and intra-speaker attitudes of Nigerians towards it. The questionnaire participants were 236, selected from the class of Nigerian public university lecturers. While the interview participants were 24, 14 drawn from the questionnaire participants and 10 from the Nigerian newsreaders on television. The study was conducted within the theoretical and conceptual frameworks of sociolinguistics and language attitude respectively. From the quantitative data, results showed that participants liked and preferred listening to the imitation of Received Pronunciation by Nigerians in news reading over other English accents used in news reading. Yet, for the sake of their identities, the participants disagreed that they imitate the Nigerian newsreaders’ accent.

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