Students’ perception and preferences on teacher-written feedback (TWF) tend to vary in different learning contexts. This study explores the perceptions and preferences of TWF among 78 Malaysian ESL students in a public pre-university college in Malaysia. Quantitative data were obtained from a questionnaire to examine the students’ general attitude and perceptions of TWF, and their preferences of the types and amount of written feedback received on their written work. This study reveals that the ESL students had a positive attitude and perception of the teacher-written feedback practice based on the perceived usefulness of the feedback, and the integrative-feedback type that combines both the content and language feedback was mostly favoured. The result also shows that the students had a high preference for indirect coded corrective feedback strategy in highlighting language errors, and preferred a large amount of feedback that highlighted all errors on their written work. These findings potentially help teachers to make a more informed decision when using teacher-written feedback so as to cater to students’ varying needs and perceptions in order to improve its use in writing.
Existing research recognizes the critical role of vocabulary in the acquisition of a second (L2)
or foreign language. In the context of L2 writing, it has been established that as vocabulary
size increases, so does the ability to write more effective texts. The purpose of this study
was to investigate the relationship between vocabulary size and ESL students’ written
performance. The participants were 69 Malaysian university students whose writing skills
were assessed as part of their English course requirement. Vocabulary size was measured
using Laufer and Nation (1990) Vocabulary Level Test (VLT). Performance on the VLT
was correlated with writing scores as a measure of written performance. Findings indicated
that a majority of participants achieved a mastery level of the 2000-word test but had
difficulty in the 3000-word and 5000-word level. Participants’ vocabulary size was also
found to be strongly associated with their written performance. These results elucidate the
importance of vocabulary knowledge in L2 writing. The pedagogical implication of the
current work calls for the integration of vocabulary in writing classrooms.
Words have a habit of appearing in recurrent patterns. These recurring patterns may take the
form of phrasal verbs, collocations, and other multi-word expressions (MWEs). Since these
patterns constantly re-occur in both speech and writing, it would seem prudent to teach
vocabulary to ESL learners in the manner in which words actually present themselves: in
typical chunks. A common example of such a chunk would be “to deal with the problem”, in
which “deal with” and “problem” are collocates. This paper contains three sections. The first
examines what phrasal verbs and collocates are in the first place, and why they are particularly
important for learners. The second part is a review of recent studies that support the teaching
of MWEs and chunking pedagogy. This paper concludes by discussing the potential of
incorporating chunking pedagogy in one’s own ESL vocabulary teaching.
Most of the plants in the ginger family Zingeberaceae are well-known for their medicinal properties. However, the genus Hornstedtia found in Sabah is less reported. This research aims to investigate the phytochemical constituent and vitamin C content of a fruit, locally known as the Tolidus fruit in Sabah. The dried fruit sample was extracted using three solvents which were water, ethanol and methanol. The phytochemical constituents were determined using standard Colour Test for the presence of alkaloid, flavonoid, saponin and tannin. Then, the content of Vitamin C was determined using the standard Colorimetric Titration and ascorbic acid as standard. The phytochemical evaluation revealed that all three targeted constituents were present in all extracts except for the alkaloid. The vitamin C content was determined in both dried and fresh sample of fruits, where 52.84 mg was quantified in the fresh fruit aqueous extract and 23.93 mg in the dried fruit aqueous extract respectively. These results are comparable to the content of vitamin C in orange and lime fruits. The phytochemical evaluation and vitamin C content of Tolidus suggested the potential of this underutilised fruit to be the natural and affordable source of vitamin C. Additionally, may protect the body against harmful free radicals. However, further analysis is needed to determine other constructive natural contents and evaluate the efficacy of this fruit as a natural source of antioxidant
University students are known to have different sleeping schedules. Students’ sleep difficulties will affect their health and their performances in studies. Sleep hygiene is a collection of healthy sleep habits that can improve one’s ability to fall asleep and stay asleep. It is considered to be imperative to treat sleep disturbance especially among university students. The aim of this study is to examine the sleep beliefs among the students of UiTM Sabah based on gender and academic performance. This study was conducted on Diploma students between March and July 2018. The respondents were randomly selected from Diploma students of all faculties in UiTM Sabah: Accounting, Business Management, Public Administration, Science, Planting Industry Management, Hotel Management, and Tourism Management. This paper is based on the Sleep Belief Scale questionnaire to assess the sleep hygiene awareness. Questionnaires were distributed using online survey. Findings of this study were analyzed using SPSS statistical software. The result of findings showed that the Sleep Incompatible Behaviours (drinking coffee, taking sleep medication, smoking before sleep) is the highest contributor of the students’ sleep hygiene and therefore it affects the sleep quality. While the Sleep Wake Cycle Behaviours (going to bed & waking up always at the same hour, going to bed two hours earlier than the habitual hour) and Thoughts and Attitude to Sleep (over thinking before sleep, trying to fall asleep without having a sleep sensation)also contributed to the sleep hygiene of the students but not as high as the Sleep Incompatible Behaviours. Based on the results of the findings, the counseling department of UiTM Sabah may organise an education program to create awareness among students about the intervention and prevention strategies as well as the incorrect beliefs about sleep.
This study explores how laboratory activity with the argumentative approach could promote
students' conceptual understanding in the Hess' law energy cycle through laboratory work.
Laboratory work with an argument-based inquiry instructional strategy was set up to 15 preuniversity
students from one of the Form 6 Centre at the West Coast Division of Sabah,
Malaysia. The laboratory work consists of a guided inquiry-based instruction with an
argumentative approach in the topic of thermochemistry. The students' understanding of the
energy processes was analyzed with a qualitative method using a semi-structured interview
and triangulated with conversation analysis. The data collected from students' conversation
during the activity was then triangulated with reflective writing at the end of the laboratory
lesson. The study shows the students' prior knowledge and argumentation discourse
significantly influences the development of conceptual understanding. This study emphasizes
argument-based inquiry (ABIIS) in laboratory work to enhance their conceptual knowledge in
the laboratory.
Black pod rot is the most economically important disease of cocoa in Malaysia which is
mainly caused by a highly polyphagous Phytophthora species, called Phytophthora palmivora.
The fungus could attack all parts of the cocoa plant organs and caused various diseases at
any growth stage from seedling until the mature stages, especially during raining season. The
application of synthetic fungicides has been widely recommended to manage the disease but
their repeated use had led to other problems such as environmental, human health and
development of fungicide resistance issues. This study isolated and identified Phytopththora
isolate from a cocoa pod sample based on micro-morphological characters. Besides, the
present investigation was undertaken to screen for the antifungal potency of different weed
extracts against the Phytophthora pathogen using poisoned food technique. The fungal isolate
was successfully recovered from pod tissues of clone PBC123 on 20% tomato juice agar
culture (20T). Only one out of ten weed extracts tested showed a significant in vitro inhibitory
effect towards mycelial growth of Phytophthora isolate, which was aqueous crude leaf extract
of Solanum torvum (42.68%). This study indicated that the potential of weed extracts in the
management of Phytophthora diseases, and may offer more natural, effective and economical
control methods.
In this era of technological advancement, there is a tremendous growth in the usage of mobile applications, mainly among accounting students in higher institutions as a medium for learning tools in education. Accounting students at tertiary level basically are subjected to learn different types of accounting standards. Accounting standards have continued to evolve to strike the balance between providing meaningful information to the users and balancing up cost of preparing such information. However, there is a growing concern that financial reporting has become overly complex. The complexity caused by financial reporting standards may derive from many factors, such as their length, the difficulty in understanding them, and the cost of applying their requirements. In the educational stream, students find that it is hard to understand lengthy wordings in the standards. Therefore, this interactive application is designed to help users especially students on classification issues under MFRS140 Investment Property. Hence,the purpose of the study is to prove the practicality and usefulness of mobile apps to understand accounting standards which is known as MFRS140: Quick Chart Mobile App particularly among final semester accounting students. In this study, the results revealed that this application provides useful and precise guidelines for students as to avoid lengthy wordings to increase the level of their understanding. By using the application, users will have a better knowledge in identifying whether the land and buildings fall under MFRS140 or other MFRSs. Furthermore, the application contributes to the effort of making users learn standards of accounting in a different perspective rather than a classroom-oriented perspective.
Heterotrigona itama is a Malaysian stingless bee species that actively reared for meliponiculture. This stingless bee is cultivated in a commercial scale for its honey production, propolis and among the greatest commercial potential as crop pollinators. However, this species has been potentially exposed to agronomic practices, among which the use of synthetic insecticides against pests.The indirect toxicity effect of the post-insecticide had affected the mortalities of H. itama especially, to the foragers. Due to that, a study has been conducted to determine the lethal concentration of 50% (LC50) and 95% (LC95) of the selected insecticides against stingless bee forager workers through residual exposure. The bioassay test was conducted to the local stingless bee H. itama at Agricultural Research Station, Tenom. Four commonly used insecticides in crop protection; Deltamethrin, Chlorpyrifos, Cypermethrin and Malathion were tested at five concentrations that diluted with 500 ml of distilled water in three replications for each insecticide. Lethal concentrations (LC50 and LC95) were obtained from probit analysis after 1-hour dry residues exposure and 24-hour mortality observation. The result shows that; all four tested insecticides were harmful to H. itama through dry residue. Deltamethrin shows the higher value of LC50 (1.256 ml) and LC95 (3.582ml) that make it less toxic to the H. itama than cypermethrin, malathion, and chlorpyrifos, however, as the concentration gets higher it becomes more toxic.
A retrospective study was carried out at one selected dairy farm located in Keningau, Sabah in order to evaluate the effect of age at first calving (AFC) on the productive performance of the
primiparous Sahiwal x Friesian crossbred dairy cows. The retrospective data was collected from 123 Sahiwal x Friesian crossbred dairy cows. AFC was classified into 7 groups such as:
≤22; 23-24; 25-26; 27-28 months old; 29-30; 31-32 and >32 months old, respectively. The productive performance parameters that were evaluated consisted of the first-lactation milk
yield, lactation length, average daily milk yield and dry period. Cows with AFC of 23-24 and 25-26 months of age showed the highest first-lactation milk yield, 7210.14± 384.84 litres and
7053.80± 342.98 litres, respectively. Cows with AFC of 23-24 months old have also showed the longest lactation length of 410.25± 19.51 days. However, cows with AFC of 23-24 months
of age produced the least average daily milk yield, that was about 17.62± 0.60 litres/day and cows that were calved at 29-30 months of age and >32 months of age produced the highest
average daily milk yield, that was about 24.10± 0.94 litres/day and 24.16± 0.79 litres/day, respectively. The study showed that AFC had a significant effect on the first-lactation milk
yield, lactation length and average daily milk yield of the Sahiwal x Friesian crossbred dairy cows (p0.05). Overall, cows with the AFC of 23-24 months old have showed the best productive performance
In general, most of the consumers in Malaysia would throw away their cooking oil just after one or two times of usage. Waste of the cooking oil is one of the root causes of water pollution as well as the cause of clogged the sink and drainage system in the residential areas. These situations occur due to bad habits of people to simply throw away used cooking oil that would affect and harm the environment. As the world moves forward to a sustainable city and greener environment, the society need to tackle this bad habit from becoming worse. This paper proposes a conceptual idea on how to educate, promote, create awareness as well as encourage the public to be more responsible in managing and disposing used cooking oil. The objective of this study is also aligned and inspired by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals SDG 1: No Poverty and SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.
Generally, pineapple sucker is used as the main planting material for commercial cultivation
of pineapple. Pineapple sucker is usually obtained either from the stalk or the stem of a
pineapple plant. Research to study the effect of planting media using mineral soil as the main
component for the mixture on the growth of sucker by stem cutting technique was conducted. The objective of this research is to study the effects of mineral soil-based mixed planting
media on the growth of pineapple suckers produced cultivated via stem cutting of Madu
pineapple. The research was conducted at the Pineapple Nursery of the Faculty of Sustainable
Agriculture, UMS Sandakan, from March 2019 until September 2019. The treatments used in
this research were, soil as T1 (100%); Soil:coco peat as T2 (1:1,v/v); Soil:peat soil as T3
(1:1,v/v); Soil:sand as T4 (1:1,v/v). The data obtained showed there is a significant difference
in the number of a successfully germinated sucker. However, no significant difference was
detected for the sucker growth parameters. Planting media T3, soil: coco peat recorded the
highest number of successfully germinated suckers (12.25). Meanwhile, for growing media, suggested T2 soil: peat soil were recorded the highest for root length (15.53 cm), leaf number
(18.00), and stem diameter (2.18 cm) at 60 days after transplant (DAT).
Several studies have indicated education inequality between rural students and urban students. In language learning, students in rural areas have lower proficiency in English than those in urban areas. The aims of the present study were to investigate the perceptions, instructional knowledge and classroom practices of English teachers in teaching reading in rural areas in Sabah. An online survey was conducted on a sample of 20 secondary English teachers in a teacher professional development programme in Kudat, Sabah. The implications of these findings for future practice in rural high schools are discussed.
A warrant is a security that allows the holder to buy and sell the underlying share at a
fixed price until expiry date. Warrant price will always fluctuates since the underlying
share also fluctuates. Hence, determining the warrant price is the main problem
among the investors in Malaysia. This research is focusing on pricing the warrant for
five companies that were listed in Bursa Malaysia. The companies were chosen
randomly from UiTM DataStream. The selected companies were Boon Koon Sdn
Bhd, Hovid Bhd, Kelington Bhd, ML Global Bhd and Tropicana Corporation Bhd.
The data contained underlying share, interest rate, exercise price and actual warrant
price. This research aims to define the price of warrant by using Binomial model.
Historical volatility and implied volatility were used in this research whereby
volatility is the movement of the underlying share price. This research aims at
comparing the actual warrant price with the calculated warrant price. The data were
computed manually by using Microsoft Excel and the comparison was made between
the two type of volatilities to give the nearest value of calculated warrant price to the
actual warrant price. The nearest value was assumed the best value for this research.
The result was made by analyzing the line graphs and comparing between historical
volatility and implied volatility with actual warrant price. Mean Square Error was
used to support the results that were obtained from the line graphs. In the end, implied
volatility yielded better results compared to historical volatility.
Plants have sustained the life of man since the beginning of the time. Their functionalities go beyond being wood for fire, instead, they are able to protect, provide and nourish. The many purposes of plants have been described by many. In this article, we will describe functional plants through the chemical perspective particularly the biologically active secondary metabolites. The initiatives in natural products studies can be traced to the early years of man when plants were used for health and treatment management as documented in traditional materia medica. In modern days, numerous phytochemicals have become the main ingredients in drugs, foods, cosmetics and many more after detailed and rigorous research programs which determine their safety and efficacy. In Malaysia, and Sabah in particular, efforts are planned and carried out to identify potential traditional plants that will be beneficial in their truest forms.