Japanese EFL international students may experience high levels of apprehension when communicating in English due to their culture, educational background, attitudes towards the role of English in their society, and lack of opportunities to practice speaking in English. Although the students in this study had studied English before joining the English immersion program, their language learning experiences might not have focused on oral communication skills. EFL learners' oral communication apprehension has been examined in various contexts, but the Japanese EFL context has not received adequate attention, especially Japanese EFL international students in Malaysian institutions of tertiary education. Thus, this study examined the levels of oral communication apprehension among Japanese EFL international students in four communication contexts (group discussions, meetings, conversations, and public speaking). The study adopted a quantitative approach, using the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24) to measure oral communication apprehension levels among 23 firstyear Japanese EFL students in an immersion program in a Malaysian public university. Data were analyzed using SPSS and Microsoft Excel. The results of this study revealed that most of the Japanese EFL international students exhibited a high level of oral communication apprehension. The study also revealed that the highest levels of apprehension were found in two communication contexts: group discussions and conversation, possibly because oral communication takes place spontaneously in these two communication contexts.

Previous studies examined benefits of collaborative writing, but the effectiveness of collaborative planning in academic writing courses has not been adequately addressed. Thus, this study examined Chinese-speaking ESL pre-university students' perceptions of the effectiveness of collaborative planning in an academic writing course in the Malaysian ESL context. This study is a qualitative research study in which data were collected using journal writing. The students in an academic writing course were requested to keep journals throughout the course. Specifically, they were requested to write about collaborative planning in terms of its effectiveness, challenges they faced, and suggestions for its improvement. Data were coded and analysed thematically. The analysis of the data revealed that Chinese-speaking ESL pre-university students perceived collaborative planning as an important instructional approach in which they could share ideas, develop their writing skills, and build their self-confidence. The study also showed that the students encountered some challenges, which resulted from their unfamiliarity with this approach. Suggestions for the improvement of collaborative planning given by the participants reveal that they enjoyed working collaboratively in groups at the planning stage of writing.