An abstract plays a pivotal role because it represents the summary of the entire article. Therefore, it is the first thing that readers evaluate to determine if they should read the entire article. Hence, it is imperative for academics to provide an abstract that includes all essential rhetorical moves when writing an academic article. In lieu of this, the current study attempted to examine whether the abstracts provided in conference proceedings include the essential rhetorical moves and whether the moves are presented in the sequence according to the selected classification. The data for this study were collected using purposive sampling from 23 abstracts of empirical-based studies in nature from the selected conference. The abstracts were written in the English language and authored by academics in the field of language and education from higher institutions in various countries. Hyland's (2000) five-moves classification of rhetorical moves was used as the coding in identifying the moves structure of the selected abstracts in this study. Other moves that emerged from the selected abstracts were added to Hyland's (2000) classification. The moves structure data were analyzed using manifest content analysis while the sequence of moves data were analyzed using latent content analysis. The findings show that the majority of the abstract only partially contains the rhetorical moves as suggested by Hyland (2000) with a variety of moves sequence. Apart from Hyland's (2000) fivemoves, some authors included the theoretical aspect of their study in their abstracts. The implications of the findings were discussed within the context of professional development among higher institutions academics, particularly in academic abstract writing.

With the influx of international students in Contribution/ OriginalityThis study is one of very few studies which have investigated the learning experiences of international students in Malaysia. It documents their preferred ways of learning English out of the formal classroom setting. Indirectly, it highlights Malaysia as having a conducive English learning environment as there are numerous opportunities presented for learning to take place.

Goal-achieving curricular are often coherent at their fundamental level. In order for a curriculum to achieve its goals, it is imperative that the curriculum is coherent at all levels. The contents presented in a curriculum must align with its theoretical underpinning. The present Malaysian English language curriculum is developed and designed based on the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). Thus, the purpose of the current study was to examine if the theoretical grounding of the Malaysian form five English language curriculum, in particular the speaking curriculum, is in alignment with its communicative label. In line with its label, the speaking curriculum embedded in the Malaysian form five English language curriculum should be developed and designed based on the CLT. It should reflect the CLT approach. The data for this study were collected from the Form Five English Language Curriculum Specifications document and the Form Five English Language textbook. In analyzing the alignment of the Malaysian form five English language speaking curriculum with the communicative approach, the data were categorized under major second language acquisition (SLA) theories and second language (L2) speaking theories. The findings show that the sociocognitive and socio-cultural theories are highly reflected in the Malaysian form five English Language speaking curriculum, the two theories which are closely related to the communicative approach. This shows that the Malaysian form five English language speaking curriculum is primarily in alignment with its communicative label. The findings are discussed in relation to their implications on English as a foreign language (EFL) speaking instruction.

No abstract

Students who learn Arabic as a foreign language in a foreign country usually face difficulties to achieve proficiency in the language. This is primarily because of the lack of Arabic language resources. However, this situation does not hinder the emergence of a group of outstanding students who achieve fluency in Arabic by using their own methods. This study investigated the methods used by these students to be used as a guideline for other students.