The act of reading is not a mere interaction between the reader and the text. It also involves the engagement between the reader and what he or she believes in. Readers find reading difficult because they have difficulties with the vocabulary of the target language used in the reading text. Next, some already have language barriers and understanding is hindered by language related issues such as sentence structure and or culture-related phrases. Readers fear reading because of top-down anxiety, bottom-up anxiety or even the classroom reading instructions. This study is done to investigate readers' perception of reading comprehension difficulties and also readers' fear of reading. Thirty respondents from social sciences faculty in a public university were randomly chosen for this study. The instrument used is a questionnaire. The survey has 3 sections. Section A is about demographic profile; section B is about perceived difficulties in reading comprehension and section C is about reading anxiety. This study has revealed that the difficulties in the reading comprehension were more worrying when it comes to reading. Readers did not blame their lack of vocabulary knowledge for their reading difficulty. They were not very confident when it comes to answering the reading comprehension questions. Learners were anxious when they were given texts they had no background knowledge of. This fear supersedes the other fear for bottom-up reading and classroom reading. Overall findings of the study bear interesting pedagogical implications in the teaching and learning of reading.

Teachers and educators are responsible in promoting effective teaching and learning to ensure intellectual development of the students. For that reason, being able to communicate well is essential for the students’ academic and employability purpose. Hence, it is important for every learner to be equipped with good speaking skill. However, it is common for ESL speakers to experience speaking anxiety which hinders them to communicate well. This study, therefore, explores speaking anxiety that occurs during oral presentation through kinesics. Kinesics provides meaningful information to the listener/audience, in which messages are conveyed through the speakers’ gesture, body movement and facial expression. It was found that speaking anxiety was shown by the speaker through kinesics during an oral presentation. Videos of speakers’ presentation were recorded and narrated to obtain the findings. Results of this study provide useful implication towards ESL teaching and learning.

Developing students' critical reading skills is essential, especially those in the universities, because they will be required to read extensively journal articles and scientific textbooks in English. However, little is known about the Diploma students' critical reading skills. Thus, this article discusses Diploma engineering students' critical reading self-rated perceptions in English language class. The study employs a quantitative research method based on a descriptive survey design. The research sample is made up of 44 Diploma students from a university in the southern region of Malaysia. Data is collected using a questionnaire distributed online using google form through course teachers. Reliability testing is conducted for each section of the questionnaire prior to collecting data. Findings indicate that the Diploma level engineering students have a limited level of readiness in using critical academic reading skills. It is hoped that the results of this research will help teachers use innovative approaches to foster critical thinking ability among engineering students. Possible pedagogical implications of the findings for language learning and teaching and future potential research areas is also discussed.

The Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent Movement Control Order (MCO) has resulted all formal classroom learning for 4.9 million students at all levels of education in Malaysia was suspended since March 2020 till todate. Educators were advised to shift from traditional face-to-face classroom meetings to distance learning mode; online or offline platforms. However, the reality is, the majority of the students are still grappling with e- learning, inadequate equipment, and an unconducive environment making the adoption of home-based elearning even harder. There is no evidence on how Diploma engineering students are experiencing this new normal. Having realised the importance of getting first-hand information regarding online distance learning (ODL) experiences, this study investigated Diploma engineering students’ ODL experiences amidst COVID-19. An online survey using Google Forms was utilised to collect data for three weeks from 486 Diploma level students in a university from the southern region of Peninsular Malaysia. Using descriptive quantitative and qualitative analysis, the distribution of study participants, learning experiences, and expectations on educational decisions of ODL was investigated. The findings highlight the need to transform education for more tech-based lessons for the millennials and there is a need to a properly planned ODL implementation with full support from all involved in ODL mode. As classes move online in the foreseeable future, the findings of this project will benefit UiTM and the government in restructuring digital education post-Covid-19 to develop employability and the productivity of the future generation.

The writing process is a development that progresses as a problem-solving activity by the writer to make the best decisions to convey his/her ideas to the audience. Writing uses both oral and written language to complete. One addition to online writing is collaborative writing. However, transitioning from individual writing to group writing will put the learners in the zone of proximal development. In addition to that, the emergence of online mode has made collaborative work problematic. This study is done to investigate the perception of language learners on online group writing. Specifically, this study is done to explore how online collaborative writing can reduce the zone of proximal development in learning. The sample chosen was undergraduates who attended a semester of academic writing course. They were taught to write collaboratively via online mode. At the end of the semester, they responded to the survey prepared. The survey has 38 items (not including the demographic profile in the survey. Section A has 13 items on Technology and Tools, section B has 13 items on Knowledgeable others section D has 12 items on Interaction. Findings revealed the zone of proximal development (ZPD) is facilitated through the inclusion of technology and tools, the presence of more knowledgeable others and also through interactions. Findings of this study have interesting implications in the teaching of collaborative writing via online.