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Challenges in overcoming the use of topic fronting among TESL trainees in Malaysia

Communication strategies include the use of nonverbal or paralinguistic communication strategies such as the use of mime, gestures, facial expressions and eye contact as well as the use of pauses for emphatic expressions could be assimilated. Communication strategies also include the use of verbal c...

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Main Authors: Megawati Soekarno, Irma Wani Othman, Ameiruel Azwan Ab Aziz, Nik Zaitun Nik Mohamed
Format: Article
Language:English
English
Published: Global Academic Excellence 2021
Subjects:
P101-410 Language. Linguistic theory. Comparative grammar
Online Access:https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/33074/1/Challenges%20in%20overcoming%20the%20use%20of%20topic%20fronting%20among%20TESL%20trainees%20in%20Malaysia.pdf
https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/33074/2/Challenges%20in%20overcoming%20the%20use%20of%20topic%20fronting%20among%20TESL%20trainees%20in%20Malaysia%20_ABSTRACT.pdf
https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/33074/
http://www.ijepc.com/PDF/IJEPC-2021-43-11-33.pdf
https://doi.org/10.35631/IJEPC.643002
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spelling my.ums.eprints.330742022-07-12T00:29:22Z https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/33074/ Challenges in overcoming the use of topic fronting among TESL trainees in Malaysia Megawati Soekarno Irma Wani Othman Ameiruel Azwan Ab Aziz Nik Zaitun Nik Mohamed P101-410 Language. Linguistic theory. Comparative grammar Communication strategies include the use of nonverbal or paralinguistic communication strategies such as the use of mime, gestures, facial expressions and eye contact as well as the use of pauses for emphatic expressions could be assimilated. Communication strategies also include the use of verbal communication strategies which need to be learned and developed. One of the verbal communication strategies is a Malaysian classified variety, topic fronting. The issue is that, despite being an achievement communication strategy, topic fronting does not abide by the English language grammatical rule. Thus, a high use of this strategy among ESL learners might affect them adversely especially in academic discourse. This study looked into this strategy among the TESL trainees in two universities from two states in Malaysia. The findings obtained from their focus group discussions (FGD) identified the utilisation of topic fronting in online interactions and methods of overcoming it as well as the inculcation of suitable communication strategies. This study’s findings show a low utilisation of topic fronting (1.142 per thousand words) with the highest theme on the “concession of topic fronting in teaching” at 2.20% average. In the effort to inculcate the TESL trainees’ awareness of their use of topic fronting communication strategy, they need to be involved in active FGDs and be provided with communication strategy trainings on alternative strategies, specifically linguistic strategies like exemplification, circumlocution and paraphrasing. Global Academic Excellence 2021 Article PeerReviewed text en https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/33074/1/Challenges%20in%20overcoming%20the%20use%20of%20topic%20fronting%20among%20TESL%20trainees%20in%20Malaysia.pdf text en https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/33074/2/Challenges%20in%20overcoming%20the%20use%20of%20topic%20fronting%20among%20TESL%20trainees%20in%20Malaysia%20_ABSTRACT.pdf Megawati Soekarno and Irma Wani Othman and Ameiruel Azwan Ab Aziz and Nik Zaitun Nik Mohamed (2021) Challenges in overcoming the use of topic fronting among TESL trainees in Malaysia. International Journal of Education, Psychology and Counseling (IJEPC), 6. pp. 13-29. ISSN 0128-164X http://www.ijepc.com/PDF/IJEPC-2021-43-11-33.pdf https://doi.org/10.35631/IJEPC.643002
institution Universiti Malaysia Sabah
building UMS Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Malaysia Sabah
content_source UMS Institutional Repository
url_provider http://eprints.ums.edu.my/
language English
English
topic P101-410 Language. Linguistic theory. Comparative grammar
spellingShingle P101-410 Language. Linguistic theory. Comparative grammar
Megawati Soekarno
Irma Wani Othman
Ameiruel Azwan Ab Aziz
Nik Zaitun Nik Mohamed
Challenges in overcoming the use of topic fronting among TESL trainees in Malaysia
description Communication strategies include the use of nonverbal or paralinguistic communication strategies such as the use of mime, gestures, facial expressions and eye contact as well as the use of pauses for emphatic expressions could be assimilated. Communication strategies also include the use of verbal communication strategies which need to be learned and developed. One of the verbal communication strategies is a Malaysian classified variety, topic fronting. The issue is that, despite being an achievement communication strategy, topic fronting does not abide by the English language grammatical rule. Thus, a high use of this strategy among ESL learners might affect them adversely especially in academic discourse. This study looked into this strategy among the TESL trainees in two universities from two states in Malaysia. The findings obtained from their focus group discussions (FGD) identified the utilisation of topic fronting in online interactions and methods of overcoming it as well as the inculcation of suitable communication strategies. This study’s findings show a low utilisation of topic fronting (1.142 per thousand words) with the highest theme on the “concession of topic fronting in teaching” at 2.20% average. In the effort to inculcate the TESL trainees’ awareness of their use of topic fronting communication strategy, they need to be involved in active FGDs and be provided with communication strategy trainings on alternative strategies, specifically linguistic strategies like exemplification, circumlocution and paraphrasing.
format Article
author Megawati Soekarno
Irma Wani Othman
Ameiruel Azwan Ab Aziz
Nik Zaitun Nik Mohamed
author_facet Megawati Soekarno
Irma Wani Othman
Ameiruel Azwan Ab Aziz
Nik Zaitun Nik Mohamed
author_sort Megawati Soekarno
title Challenges in overcoming the use of topic fronting among TESL trainees in Malaysia
title_short Challenges in overcoming the use of topic fronting among TESL trainees in Malaysia
title_full Challenges in overcoming the use of topic fronting among TESL trainees in Malaysia
title_fullStr Challenges in overcoming the use of topic fronting among TESL trainees in Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed Challenges in overcoming the use of topic fronting among TESL trainees in Malaysia
title_sort challenges in overcoming the use of topic fronting among tesl trainees in malaysia
publisher Global Academic Excellence
publishDate 2021
url https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/33074/1/Challenges%20in%20overcoming%20the%20use%20of%20topic%20fronting%20among%20TESL%20trainees%20in%20Malaysia.pdf
https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/33074/2/Challenges%20in%20overcoming%20the%20use%20of%20topic%20fronting%20among%20TESL%20trainees%20in%20Malaysia%20_ABSTRACT.pdf
https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/33074/
http://www.ijepc.com/PDF/IJEPC-2021-43-11-33.pdf
https://doi.org/10.35631/IJEPC.643002
_version_ 1760231114074488832
score 13.211869

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