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Since the term 'janda', Malay for previously married women, is typically seen to carry a negative connotation, this study set out to investigate society's perceptions towards media portrayal of the word 'janda' in Malaysia. It also aimed to examine the significant difference between gender on the perceptions towards the media portrayal. The quantitative approach was employed in this research and data for this study were questionnaire responses collected from 381 respondents of different backgrounds. The results showed that in general, the media in Malaysia portrays janda negatively. However, there are still positive portrayals of janda in the media as independent individuals especially when it relates to their children. Other than that, it was also discovered that there was a significant difference in the perception of media portrayals of janda in Malaysia between genders and it seemed that women felt that the media portrayed jandas more negatively compared to men. Future research could use qualitative methods to have an in-depth analysis and a further understanding of the reasons for negative media portrayal of janda and how it influences society, both directly and indirectly.

At the end of each semester, academic and administrative staff of a faculty have to analyse students’ results for a myriad of factors such as calculating performance of students and lecturers, and for the university’s senate confirmation. Unfortunately, many relevant personnel at the faculty level lack the clearance to access students’ results directly. To circumvent this issue, individual lecturers were required to print out and submit hardcopies of students’ results and channel the data to relevant personnel. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit and lecturers were unable to submit the hardcopies, the faculty had to find an alternative. The introduction of the Marking and Reporting System (MaRS) marks a change from manual hardcopy submission of results following travel restrictions necessitated by the Malaysian government during the Covid-19 pandemic. As with any technological shift and innovation, the level of readiness and acceptance of academic and administrative staff at a faculty must be examined. This paper uses the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis, 1986; Davis, Bagozzi & Warshaw, 1989) to determine the level of readiness and investigate the level of acceptance among academic and administrative staff in using MaRS via a questionnaire. The findings suggest that with adequate guidance and assistance, the respondents were positive towards using MaRS as the system offers advantages to them such as being cost effective, environmentally friendly, and more convenient in recording students' results. In short, the respondents are ready and willing to use MaRS to manage students’ results despite facing some difficulties in handling the system, because positively overcoming challenges will yield positive outcomes.

The coronavirus pandemic has seriously impacted all sectors around the globe and education is no exception. The outbreak has taught us to look into students' motivation level in acquiring the knowledge and skills during this time as they might be facing challenges. The purpose of this study is to investigate the motivational disposition of Applied Language learners,

Literary appreciations are people's responses about works of literature, whether they are formal or informal reviews, laymen or scholars (Pope, 1998 as cited in Ghabanchi & Doost, 2012. Thus, it is a subjective matter that requires no definite answer scheme in literature class. Students are free to interpret and explain the subject based on their opinion and understanding inasmuch as it revolves around that assigned literary work. The similar idea is practised by LG120 (Diploma in English for Professional Communication) students from UiTM (Universiti Teknologi MARA) Cawangan Johor, Segamat campus, in their Introduction to Literature (ALS103) class. As expected, various interpretations and answers produced, which directly or indirectly challenge the teachers in responding to them. Since students possess different personalities, this study should help the teachers to prepare themselves in formulating their responses too. Therefore, this study is keen to investigate the potential relationship between personal traits namely introversion, extroversion and ambiversion and the students' literary appreciation on a play entitled 'The Importance of Being Earnest' by Oscar Wilde which focuses on the character preferences. The study involved 17 LG120 Semester 1 students from UiTM Johor, Segamat campus. A mixed-method sequential explanatory study involving quantitative; questionnaires on the personality traits and qualitative; online interview on character preferences approach was utilised. The quantitative data obtained from the questionnaires on their personality traits were analysed using SPSS for frequencies which then be paired together with the data obtained from the online interview, and were analysed using Pearson's r to measure the relationship between the