The teacher plays a crucial role in providing good written corrective feedback (WCF), especially in Malaysia's education system. Numerous studies were conducted on its effectiveness and students' perceptions, but most were meant for tertiary education. This mixed method study identified the types of WCF provided by teachers during their English as a Second Language (ESL) writing pedagogical practices in five Malaysian secondary schools, and analysed the perceptions of 482 students and 15 teachers towards the provision of WCF. A questionnaire survey was administered to collect quantitative data from students, and focus group discussions were conducted among the teachers to collect qualitative data. Students highlighted that, teachers gave unfocused, metalinguistic WCF, and only held discussions much later. Students preferred teachers to mark all errors, and perceived WCF as important in improving their writing skills. Teachers reported, that they are in the habit of providing unfocused, indirect, and metalinguistic WCF, and held discussions with students only after marking the scripts. They perceived WCF as beneficial in enhancing students' writing skills and teachers' pedagogical practices. In this vein, it is construed, that the perceptions of teachers and students are mostly aligned. Teachers need to be aware of the existing types of WCF and incorporate the appropriate ones in their teaching practices. This study is significant in enriching ESL teachers' pedagogical practices of teaching writing to secondary school students by providing the best practices of WCF, taking into account students' interest, and ultimately create a more significant impact in the ESL writing classroom.

The present quasi-experimental study examined the impact of pictures, via a modified version of Emily Calhoun's (1999) Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM), on the English vocabulary acquisition of Malaysian Year 1 pupils in a rural national primary school. Meara and Buxton's (1987) Yes-No Recognition Test (YNRT) was adapted and further tested for reliability to measure the recall and retention of subjects' vocabulary size. A total of 60 subjects participated in the research, comprising two intact classes; one class formed the Experimental group and the other formed the Control group. The former underwent the intervention while the latter received typical classroom instruction. Results gleaned from independent samples t-tests revealed superior vocabulary scores at the posttest and delayed posttest levels by the Experimental group, denoting greater vocabulary knowledge recall and retention that reflects the effectiveness of the intervention in enhancing vocabulary acquisition among young Malaysian learners. This study and its findings are of significance to English language teachers, curriculum designers, policy makers, and scholars engaged in ESL/EFL research. It is also noteworthy that there exists a paucity with regards to in-depth research on the use of images for language learning among young learners, particularly within the Malaysian context.

Kahoot! is a gaming system designed for interactive learning and can be utilised for students of all ages. The present study involved two groups of Malaysian ESL students (n = 57) enrolled in a remedial English proficiency course in a public university. All 57 participants were exposed to weekly Kahoot! sessions over a period of one semester; the sessions covered various English language learning components including vocabulary and reading comprehension, but focused largely on grammar. At the end of the semester, the participants completed a 34-item questionnaire comprising closed- and open-ended items. The questionnaire was tested for reliability with returned values indicating high internal consistency, thus making the instrument a reliable option for use in future studies. The study's findings indicate that the students found Kahoot! to be beneficial in terms of: 1) inducing motivation, and 2) fostering and reinforcing learning. The students were also of the opinion that Kahoot! would be useful for foreign language learning (for instance, Spanish and French).

This paper highlights some of the vocabulary tests available, and reports the reliability of the modified Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) (Rosszell, 2007). Although there is no consensus as to what actually constitutes vocabulary knowledge, the notion that it is made up of receptive knowledge (words recognised or known when seen or heard) and productive knowledge (words appropriately used when we write or speak) is widely accepted. Lexical testing is important for various reasons, chiefly to determine reading ability which requires the use of a size test, and to monitor overall vocabulary development which necessitates the use of a test measuring both receptive and productive knowledge (for instance, the modified VKS). The modified VKS was pilot-tested on 28 university-level Malaysian remedial English language learners and analysed for 'reliability as stability over similar samples'. Data analyses returned values indicating the test to be reliable, thus presenting it as a feasible option for use among similar cohorts. This is of significance to scholars, researchers, language instructors and curriculum designers intending to employ the test in their own research, classrooms and literacy programmes.

Daily, the public is plied with political messages from various sources and millions are invested in campaign ads each election year. Yet, surprisingly little is known about the influence of linguistic details in such messages on attitudes about political candidates, especially within the context of Malaysia. The present study is grounded within the structure of framing and grammar, and suggests that grammar can influence attitudes towards a candidate's electability. The study involved 387 male and female Malaysian university students (19-to 25-year-olds) of various ethnicities. The researcher designed two comprehensive questionnaires based on Fausey and Matlock's (2011) work. Participants were randomly assigned Version A (n=192) or Version B (n=195) of the questionnaire. Both versions were about the conduct of Members of Parliament, unnamed and without party labels, to avoid bias about actual politicians. The conduct or actions were of negative and positive valence; Version A was framed using the imperfective form ['was verb + ing'] and employed the modal verb 'must', whereas Version B was framed using the perfective form ['verb + ed'] and employed the modal verb 'have to'. Primarily, results revealed that imperfective descriptions of negative actions resulted in negative responses to the re-election of a candidate. However, the participants were largely insensitive to grammatical alteration when judging a candidate's past positive actions. The results on modality demonstrated a preference for the modal verb 'must' which carries more "emotional value" than 'have to'. The present study is novel in that it covers the dimension of modality (which has never been explored in previous studies) and that to date, there is no available research similar to it in the Malaysian context.