Despite being a community that is often associated with the terms 'illiterate', 'marginalised' and 'educationally disadvantaged', certain indigenous students demonstrate positive developments in their second language proficiency (English). This issue creates a centre of attention as it can highlight suggestions to better the education of indigenous people in Malaysia. Having this in mind, a study was conducted in a remote indigenous school situated in the jungle of Banjaran INTRODUCTION'Bertehtuh' is an action word in the Temiar language which means 'to speak'. Ever since education stepped into the community, the phrase 'Bertehtuh English' has started to become common among Temiar children. This is more apparent when the younger generation of Temiar people utilise Facebook and other social applications in their daily life. Teaching English to indigenous children however comes with great responsibility. What is more, for years, they have been associated with the terms 'illiterate', 'marginalised' and 'educationally disadvantaged' (Johari and Nazri, 2006;Frigo et al., 2004;Hanlen, 2010). The Composite Score for Primary School Report (Ministry of Education, 2010) also reports that a good number of indigenous schools are either in band 5, 6 or 7 which is equivalent to poor performance and require further support. Whilst it is true that indigenous people are still lagging in terms of education achievement, this does not mean their community is absent from successful stories. 302 people doing diploma, 88 people doing degree, 3 people doing master's degree and 2 people doing doctorate studies; and to date this number has improved. The participation of indigenous students at tertiary institutions without any doubt requires a certain level of English as a requirement in their learning process. This progress also reflects that they have benefited from the English language instruction both at the primary and secondary levels. This case is also similar to the school that I was attached to until 2 years ago. There are certain students from the indigenous community who acquire English better than others.My teaching experience and their successful stories have elevated my curiosity to investigate why certain indigenous students show positive development in learning English compared to other children of the same community; it is important to take note that English is also not the community's first or second language, but rather the third. Since this paper believes that all children regardless of their ethnicity can succeed in learning a second language, a study was conducted to explore factors that have a major influence on Temiar students. In order to guide the process of writing this paper, two research questions were developed as follows: (1) what are the main factors that contribute to the success of the indigenous-student in this research in learning English as her second language? And (2) how do these factors contribute to her success in language learning? LITERATURE REVIEW Individual differences among learnersHa...

Current understanding of the psychological mechanisms underlying reading comprehension among multilinguals are typically limited to external observations of their ability to read and comprehend text. Additionally, descriptions of the nature of comprehension processes relied perilously on the use of memory taken after the reading process. In this article we introduce the potential of using eye tracking as a tool in collecting internal attention data for a deeper understanding of EFL text processing among multilinguals. The eye tracking procedures will enable researchers to combine perspectives collected from internal and external observations, to explicate and elucidate the complex cognitive processes of the multilingual when involved in reading. Since the use of the eye-tracking in reading research methodology is fairly new, particularly in multilingual contexts such as Malaysia and Nusantara in general, we will emphasize how progress has been achieved elsewhere in understanding text processing through the use of eye-tracking. The article will introduce relevant research projects that can be conducted using eye-tracking, after sketching the historical progression of eye-tracking research in the field. It concludes by suggesting that eye-tracking can provide a framework for studying the full range of the multilingual readers’ competencies in reading while expanding related theories about EFL reading.Keywords: External attention, eye-tracking, internal attention, oculomotor-behaviours, oral-comprehension and multilingual readersCite as: Mihat, W., Azman, H. & Soh, O.K. (2018). Bringing reading research in multilingual Nusantara into a new direction through eye-tracking. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 3(2), 107-123. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol3iss2pp107-123

Setting up an eye tracking experiment involves multitier processes that cover important issues such as developing the data collection guidelines, establishing data analysis protocols, and giving meaning to data. Although eye tracking handbooks have established imperative discussion on how the data should be analysed and written, there is still a dearth in the literature on data collection guidelines caused by the variety of features in different kinds of eye trackers. In this study, the researchers review the use of a wearable eye tracking apparatus with authentic materials and interview protocols. Exemplified through a preliminary study conducted on Year Six students in a primary school that investigates the internal processes of reading ESL texts, the significance and implications of using a wearable eye-tracking apparatus with a single point calibration are reported to improve the data collection guidelines. Relatedly, considerations for research procedures and instrument designs are also made in this paper.

This study explored the perceptions of students from different types of schools in Malaysia towards their online learning engagement during COVID-19's movement control order using Fredricks et al.'s framework of behavioural, cognitive, and emotional engagement. In addition to these variables, external support provided to the students was also considered. To this end, a questionnaire that examined the students' general online practices and online learning engagement was administered. Seven hundred sixty-eight students from four different types of secondary schools (national, Chinese, international, and high performing schools) responded to the questionnaire. The findings from the ANOVA analysis indicated that generally the respondents demonstrated positive online learning practices. However, the amount of time spent interacting with teachers online should be much improved. The findings also indicated significant differences in perceptions towards online learning engagement and external support based on school types.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Malaysian English teachers identified a pressing need to support upper primary school pupils, particularly those in the upper levels, in the effective composition of extended writing. Additionally, these educators required more innovative methodologies for teaching vocabulary in this context. Consequently, the current study aimed to develop a vocabulary index as a suggested resource for Malaysian English teachers instructing upper primary school pupils on extended writing. To achieve this, a quantitative computational research strategy and corpus-driven research design were employed. A purposive sampling technique was used to select 560 advanced upper primary school pupils from 28 schools, each with high English performance in the capital of each state and the federal territory of Malaysia, who produced a total of 152,187 words in extended writing for analysis. LancsBox, a primary computational linguistics application, was used for data processing. Given that the vocabulary index for extended writing necessitates a more comprehensive coverage of vocabulary, functional and content words were included, and keywords, raw and normalised frequencies were analysed and reported. Through the vocabulary index built in this study, the researchers found English teachers in Malaysia should utilise local issues in writing prompts, emphasise the use of both positive and negative adjectives, introduce complex sentence structures to enhance pupils’ writing abilities and also train pupils to organise the ideas in their writing. Future linguistic studies could replicate the present investigation, so that it can respond to their classroom needs.