Technology has brought tremendous advancements in online education, spurring transformations in online pedagogical practices. Online learning in the past was passive, using the traditional teacher-centred approach. However, with the tools available today, it can be active, collaborative, and meaningful. A well-developed task can impel learners to observe, to reflect, to strategize, and to plan their own learning. This paper describes an English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor’s attempt to foster interactive and reflective learning among distance learners at a public university in Malaysia, working within the framework proposed by Salmon (2004). The authors found that proper planning and close monitoring of a writing activity that incorporates interactive and reflective learning helped to raise the students’ awareness of their own learning process and consequently helped them to be more responsible for their learning. The students acquired significant cognitive benefits and also valuable practical learning skills through the online discussions. However, there were challenges in carrying out the writing task to promote this form of learning, including students’ professional and family commitments and cultural attitudes as well as communication barriers in the online environment. To overcome these challenges, the authors recommend the following: ensure tutor guidance, enforce compulsory participation, address technical problems quickly, commence strategic training prior to the beginning of a task, and implement team teaching with each instructor taking on certain roles.

To date, there has been little research done on phonological acquisition in the Malay language of typically developing Malay-speaking children. This study serves to fill this gap by providing a systematic description of Malay consonant acquisition in a large cohort of preschool-aged children between 4- and 6-years-old. In the study, 326 Malay-dominant speaking children were assessed using a picture naming task that elicited 53 single words containing all the primary consonants in Malay. Two main analyses were conducted to study their consonant acquisition: (1) age of customary and mastery production of consonants; and (2) consonant accuracy. Results revealed that Malay children acquired all the syllable-initial and syllable-final consonants before 4;06-years-old, with the exception of syllable-final /s/, /h/ and /l/ which were acquired after 5;06-years-old. The development of Malay consonants increased gradually from 4- to 6 years old, with female children performing better than male children. The accuracy of consonants based on manner of articulation showed that glides, affricates, nasals, and stops were higher than fricatives and liquids. In general, syllable-initial consonants were more accurate than syllable-final consonants while consonants in monosyllabic and disyllabic words were more accurate than polysyllabic words. These findings will provide significant information for speech-language pathologists for assessing Malay-speaking children and designing treatment objectives that reflect the course of phonological development in Malay.

This paper discusses the challenges faced by a group of Smart School teachers in a partnership model designed to help them develop professionally through the use of online tools. This model known as e-CPDelT: Model 2020 is loosely based on the successful, UK based Improving the Quality of Education For All (IQEA) project (Hopkins et al., 1996). The model was piloted on 20 teachers of English, mathematics and science from 5 Smart Schools around Kuala Lumpur. It features collaboration between these teachers in the hope that it would lead to the development of viable communities of practice. Teacher collaboration in this pilot was in the form of (a) sharing text based narratives of perceived good lessons through blogs and (b) sharing of video clips of good lessons through the ViP (Virtual interactive Platform) and (c) forum discussions of lessons. Data were obtained from teacher interviews and mentor reflections. Brinkerhoff's (2006) framework on technology adoption was used to identify the challenges faced by these teachers. The findings revealed that teachers faced resource, institutional, informational and attitudinal problems. The paper concludes with discussion of suggested measures to improve technology adoption by teachers.

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