Traditionally, language needs to be learnt face-to-face. Pronunciation practices, role play, group discussions are all activities that allow interaction among learners. Previously, some things are better learnt face-to-face, while some can be learnt online. Nevertheless, the pandemic has accelerated the need for online learning in almost all courses offered at institutions. Devices used for online learning can be used as a leaning tool by learners to improve understanding. These devices help to reduce a learner’s zone of proximal development (ZPD) thus maximizing learning. Online learning has been said to facilitate rather than hinder language learning. This study is therefore done to explore how it helps the learning of Mandarin. The study investigates how online interaction affects the learning of Mandarin in language classrooms. 173 participants responded to a 28 items (5 likert scale) instrument. Findings reveal how online learning influences interaction, encourages participation of more knowledgeable others, and improves interaction with content among learners.

Online learning has become a new trend in the world. To teach online effectively, the instructors have to improvise their course content. Learners have mixed feelings over online learning, some of them prefer the face-to-face teaching; but some are comfortable with the online teaching mode. Previously, the success of language teaching has always depended on face-to-face interaction. However, language is taught online now. Therefore, this study was carried out to investigate the mediational process in social learning during online language learning. 111 diploma, bachelor degree and postgraduate students had participated in this quantitative study in a public university in Malaysia. The instrument used is a questionnaire with 29 items. This study examines the influence of online language learning on learner-to-learner, learner-to-instructor, learner-to-content interaction and mediational process. The results show there is a significant difference in education level. Findings in this study reveals that support from peers plays a crucial role as it prevents students from dropping out of the course. The students prefer teaching style that involves their active participation. The findings also indicate that students find it is important to get an overview of the content before the class begins. Lastly, learning motivation increases when instructor gives good comments during online lessons. Learners also need to learn to be more responsible to make sure their online learning time is filled with successful learning and interactions.Contribution/ Originality: This paper's main contribution is finding that online learning is a form of mediational process for learners. Learners get the opportunity to engage through learner-to-learner, learner-toinstructor, as well as learner-to content interactions.

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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.

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