Globalisation has resulted in people from different parts of the world migrating from one country to another in search of better job opportunities. Countries that provide attractive job opportunities are most likely to become the major destinations of migrant workers. In Southeast Asia, Malaysia is one of the preferred destinations of economic…

The preliminary study examined teacher and students' translanguaging practices in a preschool in Sarawak, Malaysia. Analysis of audio-recorded interactions of 15 students with their teachers in two preschool classrooms (1 English, 1 Malay) found 291 instances of teacher talk functions (English, 87; Malay, 204) and 222 instances of student talk…

In Malaysia, English as a second language is used as a medium of instruction in most institutions of higher learning. Although it is compulsory to use English as a medium of instruction for all academic programmes, code-switching is still prevalent in the classroom for instance during an oral presentation. This phenomenon is also common among the…

This paper reports the uses and practices of literacy in English of primary schoolchildren in Malaysia. Data was gathered from two children, their parents and the English subject teacher. The results reveal four major findings. First, the results reveal that the students' experience with out-of-school literacies in English were largely afforded by…

This study seeks to understand how bilinguals process texts with lexical cues in their first language (L1) and second language (L2) using an eye-tracking methodology. Quantitative data were obtained from an eye-tracker and a post-test, while qualitative data were gathered through interviews with the participants. The findings from the eye-tracking…

The present study aims to identify the factors that can potentially affect code switching in a college classroom in Malaysia. The participants were twenty bilingual international students enrolled in an English course in Malaysia. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with the participating students. The findings of the study…

Translanguaging offers a new perspective on language learning by affirming and leveraging the diverse language practices that make up learners' unitary language repertoire as resources for their learning. Despite the potential pedagogical benefits of translanguaging, English-only policies are still prevalent in many language classrooms. Even when…

This paper focuses on code-switching (CS) in postcolonial (P-C) classrooms (e.g. Africa, Asia and Asia-Pacific) where the use of English has increased not only as a subject matter, but also as the language of instruction across all subjects. CS, a common behaviour among bilinguals and polyglots, refers broadly to the alternation between two or…

Purpose: This study aims to explore how the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model (2000) is used to categorize students' and teachers' interactions in an asynchronous discussion and how these interactions are able to help students add quality to their narrative writing. Design/methodology/approach: The interactions were categorized based on teaching,…

Code-switching has always been an intriguing phenomenon to sociolinguists. While the general attitude to it seems negative, people seem to code-switch quite frequently. Teachers of English as a foreign language too frequently claim that they do not like to code-switch in the language classroom for various reasons--many are of the opinion that only…

Personal, social, cultural, economic, and political factors influence the language/s used by family members in the home domain. This study examines how family language policies are planned and developed in Filipino-Malaysian families in Malaysia. The language used at home in such mixed or exogamous marriages is also influenced by the ethnicity of…

The main aims of this qualitative study are to identify and categorise the types of lexical borrowings from the three main Malaysian languages which are the Malay language, Chinese dialects and Indian languages used by 203 ESL teachers, to what extent these lexical borrowings are used and for what reasons. This study has identified a new category…

The study examined the use of code-switching by English and science teachers in secondary schools in Malaysia. It focuses on the functions of code-switching in multilingual classrooms where English is the language of instruction, examining in particular the reiterative function of code-switching and its association with translation. Thirty six…

This study examines functions of teacher code-switching in secondary school English and science classrooms in Malaysia, where English has recently been implemented as the language of instruction for science. Classroom interaction data were obtained from two English lessons and a science lesson. Analysis of the teachers' code-switching using…

Due to the alarming signals of declining proficiency level among English Language learners in Malaysia, this study set out to learn more about the learners' perceptions of the teachers' code-switching in English Language classrooms. The objectives of this study were to investigate: a) learners' perceptions of teachers' code-switching, b) the…