In recent years, Malaysia has been experienced with the weather changes especially in increasing of the temperature. The highest temperature usually occurs during equinox. Equinox is the phenomenon when the sun is directly above the Earth's equator and this happens twice a year. Therefore, this study is carried out to determine the effects of equinox on climate change for five consecutive years. The information of this study was obtained from Malaysian Meteorological Department. The study involved three states and one federal territory in Peninsular Malaysia, namely Alor Setar (Kedah), Kota Bharu (Kelantan), Johor Bahru (Johor) and Kuala Lumpur. These states were chosen based on their location in North, East, South and West of Peninsular Malaysia. As a result, the overall mean temperature at all stations is in the range of 27°C to 30°C. The analysis revealed that the mean temperature in March showed significant increase from year 2011 to 2015 in all stations and Alor Setar recorded the highest mean temperature. However, other factors are also needed to be considered to the rising of the temperature such as El Nino phenomenon, amount of rainfall, number of rain days, Southwest and Northeast Monsoon seasons and others. Keywords: Equinox, climate, peninsular Malaysia, temperature, pollution

The aims of the study were to determine the most frequent grammatical errors made by students and their performance in a grammar test. Hence,183 diploma students from a local university were chosen to assist in this study. The instrument of the study was a final test consisting of two reading comprehension passages and a grammar section. For the purpose of the study, the students’ answers of the grammar section were analysed. The grammar section consists of 10 questions covering different parts of speech and tenses which were randomly chosen. It was found that the majority of the students’ performance in a grammar test is in the middle range. Most of them did not perform badly but neither did most of them excel at English grammar. Based on the findings there seemed to be a need for a more enhanced focus on the teaching and learning of English grammar for Malaysian ESL students. However, because this is a small study that examined only one batch of students, the results of this study may not be too significant for a more generalised conclusion. Thus, continuous study should be done with regard to aspects of grammar knowledge and its teaching and learning in Malaysia.

Abstract:The primary concern of the present research was to investigate the effects of an Internet-Assisted Language Learning (IALL) environment on the development of L2 students' critical thinking skills. A total of 77 students of Diploma in Hotel Management at UiTM Terengganu, Dungun Campus, Malaysia were involved in this study. This sample was divided into three groups, namely full, partial and non-IALL environments. Cornell Critical Thinking Test (CCTT), Level X, was administered as the pre-post-test to measure the development of L2 students' critical thinking skills. The CCTT scores revealed that students who were exposed to the full IALL environment improved significantly in their critical thinking skills as compared to those in the partial and non-IALL environments. When the various sub-skills were measured, the analysis showed that they improved the most in the connecting skill, an element of the higher order thinking skills. The present study concludes that using the Internet in language classrooms helps to create critical ESL students.

Greeting cards are a form of communication between people that are used to exchange messages or sentiments for special occasions that are culturally or personally significant. Studies on greeting cards vary and range from those based on design, function, purpose, and impact. The purpose of this study was to identify the non-linguistic features of Malay Raya ecards and the rationale of using the features especially in terms of its sociocultural and religious beliefs and practices in this genre. To explore non-linguistic features, 70 Malay Raya e-cards obtained from official e-mails between 2020 and 2021 were analysed using Kress and Van Leeuwen's (1996) Multimodality Theory. The theory explains the relationship between social practice and written discourse and denies linguistic choice as the only device in meaning-making. The findings of the study revealed several non-linguistic features which are significant to portray the uniqueness of Malay culture, and the Malaysian corporate culture. It is clear from the finding that Malay Raya e-card is a venue worth researching as it may provide many information that may be useful to the future of greeting card in society. It is also hoped that there will be more studies conducted to explore more on the non-linguistic side of the language use

In the Malay culture, a wedding invitation is regarded as one of the most essential parts of the nuptials. It does not only convey good news but also requests the presence of all relatives, friends and social acquaintances to gather at a certain place and time for solemnization and reception ceremonies. A wealth of research on patterns of wedding invitations has been conducted among various societies throughout the world. However, not much genre-analysis research relating to wedding invitations among the Malays can be found. Hence, the present preliminary study was conducted to explore various patterns of Malay written wedding invitations. Adopting the genre analysis model proposed by Swales, 60 samples of the Malay wedding invitation cards were analyzed in terms of move orders, obligatory and optional moves. The cards were randomly selected from a collection of invitations from 2015 to 2019. This study revealed that the Malays frequently employed seven generic moves in their written wedding invitations.