Awareness of students' LLS is highly useful for teachers to make informed decisions in their teaching practice. Although numerous researchers on LLS have been done, there has been no research comparing Malaysian students' LLS in online lessons and face-to-face lessons. It is of great importance to explore this because the practice of incorporating blended learning that combines both online and face-to-face lessons has been on the rise. As such, this study explored Malaysian students' language learning strategies during both online and face-to-face lessons. Mixed-method research approach was employed in which the first is a 5-point Likert scale survey questionnaire that was adapted from Oxford's (1990) SILL questionnaire. 60 upper form ESL students were selected through convenience sampling to respond to the questionnaire. Aside from that, semi-structured interviews were carried out on 6 respondents from the questionnaire survey in order to obtain comprehensive responses from the participants. The research instrument aims to answer two research questions; 1) What are the language learning strategies used by Malaysian ESL learners in online classrooms? 2) What are the language learning strategies used by Malaysian ESL learners in face-to-face classrooms? The data was analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 27 and the findings were analysed descriptively by interpretation of mean scores and standard deviation. The findings suggest that students mostly use metacognitive and cognitive skills in both online and face-to-face classrooms. However, students use more direct learning strategies including memory and compensation strategies in online classrooms. Whereas, in face-to-face classroom, students generally lean more towards indirect learning strategies such as affective and social strategies. These findings implied that both online and face-to-face classrooms allow students to employ different learning strategies which can be beneficial for their language development. Hence, learning and teaching instructions that include both traditional and technologically enhanced ESL lessons would positively impact students. Future research of wider scale that includes diverse populations particularly from the quantitative view point would greatly help in adding onto the findings of this research.

Moving into the post-pandemic phase, there is currently a rise in the incorporation of digital tools in teaching and learning particularly in regards to ESL. This most likely is due to the fact that overnight, the global crisis had caused both educators and students to rely heavily on technology and digital tools for teaching and learning. This cross-sectional study explores students' perceptions in using YouTube to improve their speaking skill in Malaysia and Indonesia. Quantitative research instrument was utilized in the form of 5-point Likert scale survey questionnaire that was adapted from past research. The questionnaire was distributed to 50 Malaysians and 50 Indonesians at secondary levels to get the answer to three research questions; 1) What are the English language learners' perceptions on YouTube use in English language learning? 2) What are the English language learners' perceptions on the role of YouTube in English speaking skills improvement? And 3) To what extent do the perceptions of Malaysian and Indonesian students vary on the use of YouTube in improving speaking skills? The data was analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 27 as well as descriptive analysis of the mean and standard deviation. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted to obtain in-depth feedback from ten students among the respondents. The findings suggest that although the students' perceptions of using YouTube videos in English language learning are highly positive, they are generally unsure if YouTube is able to improve speaking skills. Apart from that, the findings also indicates that the roles of YouTube in improving speaking skills for both nationalities were almost identical at that stage because p > 0.05 which is 0.712. It can be concluded that there is no difference of perceptions on the use of YouTube to improve speaking skills among Malaysian and Indonesian secondary school students.