Malaysian Higher Learning Institutions currently have more than one hundred thousand international students as a part of its pledge of internationalization of Higher Education. One of the core challenges for its international students is their sociocultural adjustments into the new environment. This study investigates the sociocultural adaptation challenges of international students in the host university. A total of 200 students were surveyed using a modified version of the sociocultural adaptation scale (SCAS). Using a quantitative approach, Exploratory Factor Analysis, ANOVA and T-test were performed to analyze the data. The findings show that the students face challenges in four aspects, namely language proficiency, academic adaptation, environmental adaptation and interpersonal adaptation. The results of the independent sample t-test show that, ‘language adaptation’ and ‘academic adaptation’ have more influence on the sociocultural adjustments of international students, while ‘interpersonal adaptation’ has little influence. In addition, results of the ANOVA show that the university campus and region of origin of the students influence the ‘academic and ‘environmental’ adaptation of the students. Based on the findings, we suggest that Malaysian universities should encourage cross-cultural adaptation through improving their social support linkages with the locals and the people of different culture than their own.

ICT is the acronym for Information and Communication Technology and refers to a varied set of technological tools and resources used communication to create, disseminate, store, and manage information. In the context of teaching and learning, the integration of ICT can assist students in acquiring English language competency as well as enhancing the quality of their learning experience. Previous research has shown that there exists barriers to implementing ICT in teaching and learning, i.e. teacher-level barriers and school-level barriers. Despite there being barriers for ICT integration in teaching and learning, the Covid 19 pandemic has fast tracked ICT integration, and today teachers and students worldwide have been forced to work online regardess of whether they are prepared in terms of knowledge, skills and resources for the 'technologisation' of teaching and learning. This study investigated teachers’ practices and perceptions in using ICT in English Language Teaching (ELT) with a focus on the obstacles faced by English language teachers in using ICT in their lessons, measures taken to increase their ICT usage and the perceptions of using ICT in the classroom. Respondents in this study were 18 teachers in a premier school with either a training in English language teaching or English background and at least 5 years' teaching experience. Using a 60-item questionnaire, data was gathered on respondent’s ICT literacy, obstacles faced, ICT usage and their perceptions of using ICT in the classroom. The findings of the research suggest the lack of ICT literacy and time allocated for teaching and learning process as the main obstacles faced by English teachers in using ICT. In addition, the overall ICT literacy of the teachers were still limited and needed to be improved especially in the use of internet so that they would gain more confidence in implementing ICT in their classroom. While the findings show that the main problems that had restricted the teachers in using ICT in their teaching is the lack of ICT skills and confidence in implementing ICT in the classroom, this study recommends that schools provide more training and ICT courses to teachers to improve teachers’ ICT literacy as a measure to embrace the new normal of the Covid 19 pandemic digitalised era.

Total Physical Response (TPR) is built around the coordination of speech and actions. Action songs promote dance or acts while singing. In this study, we look at action songs as part of TPR to investigate its effectiveness in enhancing students’ listening skills to develop their mastery of the English Language. Seven Year 4 students from a Low Enrolment (SKM) Tamil Vernacular Primary school type (SJKT) were selected as the participants of a within-group experimental design. Upon completing a pre-test on listening skill, students were given six treatment lessons, whereby one hour per lesson was allocated. The treatment was conducted once a week, for every listening lesson. The data was collected while and after the pupils were taught through a series of lessons or interventions that incorporated songs and TPR to complete a variety of listening tasks. The finding shows that even though action songs and TPR are not commonly used among English Language teachers, teachers should implement the method especially for students from Low Enrolment Vernacular Primary School Type as the students in this study showed a significant increase in their post intervention scores of the listening test. The findings also discusses SJKT English Language teachers perceptions on the use of songs and TPR and suggests that there is still a lack of understanding among the teachers on the potential benefits of action songs and TPR for their particular students who have high levels of anxiety and inhibitions to learning English.

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