Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman

Faculty of Arts and Social Science

Department of Languages and Linguistics

DLL Staff- Research Area/Expertise

No. / Research Interests / Examples
1. / 1. Educational Leadership / - Leadership in Educational Organizations (b) Teacher Leadership Improves Student Learning
2. Educational Management / - Management of Educational Organizations (b)Management of Public Primary Schools in (certain state in Malaysia):Problems and Prospects
3. Teaching Strategies / - Questioning Techniques: Research-Based Strategies for Teachers (b) Time-on-Task: A Teaching Strategy that Accelerates Learning
2. / 1. Literature and Philosophy (modern & secular philosophies) / - The Concept of The Absurd in Albert Camus'sThe Myth of Sisyphus
2. English Literature / - Determinism and Tragic Elements in Edith Wharton Major Novels
3. Application of literary theory(ideas & methods) for evaluation and interpretation purposes. / - Marxist reading ofThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
3. / 1. Speech Acts across Cultures / - You will choose two or three different languages and look at their one particular speech act (e.g: apologies, requests). You need to investigate the differences and similarities between the cultures you have chosen. Your focus could be either spoken or written communication.
2. Methodologies in Teaching and
Learning / - You will choose a particular method to teach English in classrooms (e.g: using comics to teach vocabulary, using cartoons to teach grammar). You will test the method in classrooms and prove if the method of your choice enables students to learn English effectively in classrooms.
4. / 1. Education Technology / - Will new teachers be prepared to teach in a digital age? A national survey on information technology in teacher education.
2. English and Education / - Addressing the vocabulary needs of English‐language learners in bilingual and mainstream classrooms.
3. Computer Mediated
Communication in Teaching and Learning / -Factors influencing the success of computer mediated communication (CMC) environments in university teaching.
4. IT in Education / - Obstacles to the integration of ICT in education: results from a worldwide educational assessment.
5. / 1. Grammar
/ - Grammatical errors made in written English essays among UTAR/secondary students in Malaysia
2. English for Specific Purposes / - An Investigation into the Errors in English Writing ofMalaysian ESP Learners
3. Discourse Analysis / An analysis of collocation and reiteration in selected texts in ESL classroom
(study on cohesion and coherence in written texts.)
6. / 1. Varieties of English / - The Intelligibility of Malaysian English: A Study of some Spoken English Produced by University Students in Malaysia
- Nativization/ Localization of English in Malaysia
-A Comparative Study of l and r between Malaysian and China Learners
2.Language Learning Theories / - NegativeLanguage Transfer inESLLearners'English
- Negative Transfer of Chinese to University Students’ English Writing
3. Error Analysis/ Contrastive Analysis / - Error Analysis Committed by EFL and ESL Learners
7. / 1. Corpus Linguistics
/ -A Corpus Based Study on the Use of Phrasal Verbs by Malaysian ESL Learners
- Reporting Verbs in e-Newspaper Corpus
- Indefinite Pronouns in ICNALE
- Short Forms in LOB, Brown, FLOB and Frown Corpora
2. Written Discourse Analysis / - An Analysis of Moves in Job Advertisement (any advertisements)
- Readability of Health/Banking Brochures(any type of brochures)
- Linguistic Sexism in Children's Storybooks (any reading materials)
- Lexical Bundles in IELTS Reading Passages
3. Language and Technology / - (Im)politeness in e-Mail Correspondences
- Lexical Borrowing in Blogs
8. / 1. Phonetics & Phonology
(Pronunciation) / - The role and importance of pronunciation in speech and oral communication.
2. ELT Practicum / - An Analysis of Classroom Language of Instruction
3. Manglish / - Manglish- Pronunciation aspects
4. IT in Education / - Obstacles to the integration of ICT in education: results from a worldwide educational assessment.
9. / 1. Psycholinguistics / Aphasia - Language disturbance after brain damage that leads to speech errors and word-
finding difficulties.
- Conduct a case study of a person with any type of aphasia, identify any word level or sentence level symptoms in the patient and investigate on their comprehension performance by conducting Sentence to Picture Matching Test. Explain the semantic and syntactic impairment in aphasia.
- Identify one hypothesis in language processing (e.g. Trace Deletion Hypothesis-
TDH) to adequately explain the patterns of word-loss in aphasia.
Example of topics
·  Patterns of comprehension performance in agrammatic Broca’s or Wernicke’s aphasia; A test of the Trace Deletion Hypothesis (TDH)
·  A case study of syntactic impairment in semantic reversible sentences of a patient diagnosed with Broca’s Aphasia.
Dyslexia and dysgraphia
- Analyse any data (reading, spelling, memory and cognition, hearing and speech, writing and motor skills) from a dyslexic child (or adult) before, during, and after remedial help. Gauge the extent to which the problem has been solved.
Example of topics
·  The writing skills of students with dyslexia in higher education
·  Spelling errors: An analysis of regular and dyslexic bilingual students.
2.Second-language Acquisition / Vocabulary acquisition
- Interview learners or conduct a survey on students’ attitude and practical approach to
vocabulary learning. Use this information to evaluate assumptions critically made in the research, and make suggestions for how teachers might help learners more.
Example of topic
·  Vocabulary acquisition through reading and writing among university students
Interlanguage
- Compare and discuss on the errors made in areas such as vocabulary use, grammatical forms and pronunciation made by learners in second language learning. Explain the effect of L1 in L2 acquisition.
Example of topic
·  The influence of first language in the second language learning among UTAR students.
3. Phonetics & Phonology / Phonological & Acoustic Analysis of Speech
- Analyse the physical aspects of spoken language ( waveform analysis, voice onset
time (VOT) measurements, formant frequency measurements) and the patterns of phonology of learners’ speech production of the English final stops
Example of topics
·  Acoustic analysis of speech produced by children with cerebral palsy.
·  The phonological investigation of the oral stops in speech production of UTAR students.
10. / 1. Feminism / Ecofeminism and/or Psychoanalytic Feminism:
-Exploring the concept of“Madness” in Women’s Writings (i.e. Elizabeth Wurtzel’s Prozac Nation, Shirley Jackson’s The Bird’s Nest, Janet Frame’s Faces in the Water, Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman etc).
- Comparing and contrasting between male and female madness in contemporary literature (i.e. Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye etc).
Ecofeminism Spiritualities:
- Exploring the concept of “Spirituality” in contemporary literature (i.e. Paulo Coelho’s Brida and The Witch of Portobello, etc)- analyzing the concept of “personal integration” and “Inner Awareness”
2. Post-Colonial Literature / Post Colonial Feminism:
- Analysing the “divided self” in Shirley Lim’s Among the Whitemoon Faces, Exploring the concept of “sexuality” in women’s writing (i.e. Dina Zaman, Che Husna Azahari etc).
Stylistics:
- Analysing the style and effect of terror in Tunku Halim's selected short stories: A Stylistic Approach
3. Multiliteracies/Literacy Studies / - Engaging Students in the English Classroom Through a Multiliteracies Approach: Teaching literature via Film (A Case Study)
- Enhancing Academic Literacy among Tertiary Learners: A Case Study in UTAR
11. / 1. Teaching of Literature / - Pedagogical Implications of the Incorporation of the Literature Component in the Malaysian ESL Syllabus
2. Professional Development / - E-Portfolios in helping English Language Teacher Development
3. Thinking Skills / - Level of thought processes used by teachers in the classroom
12. / 1. Reading Approaches and Strategies / - Metacognitive reading strategies of Malaysians pre-university students.
2. Gender Strategies / - Learning styles and gender differences of universitystudents.
3. 3.Eye Movement and
Reading / - Eye movement of good and poor readers.
13. / 1. Postcolonial Literature / - A Marxist Approach of the Oppressive Idelogical System in Tiger Isle; A Government of Thieves
- An Orientalist Approach; Into The Heart of Borneo by O'Hanlon
2. Feminism / - Third World Feminism in Selected Malaysian Short Stories From Lee Su Kim's Kebaya Tales.
3. Popular Culture / - Jung's Archetypes in Lord of the Rings
- Jung's Archetypes in Harry Potter
- Exploring Pain in Fiction in Young Adult Fiction; An Analysis on John Green's The Fault in Our Stars
- Echoes of Silence by Chuah Guat Eng; Freud's Identity Conflicts and Defence Mechanism within the characters.
14. / 1. Curriculum Planning &
Implementation in
Malaysia. / - Teachers Perception & Belief’s towards the implementation of KSSR among the Malaysian Primary Schools.
- Attitudes & motivation of the National Types School students towards the implementation of KSSR in rural district of Malaysia..
2. Blended Learning in HEI / - Postgraduates perception towards the implementation of blended learning in HEI.
- Exploring on the Malaysian graduates readiness towards the blended learning approach in HEI.
3. Private schools in Malaysia / - Parents choice for International Schools in Malaysia.
4. Home school in Malaysia / - Exploring the Homeschooling scenario in Malaysia, what do the stake holders have to say?
- The MOE role in implementation of the rules and regulation towards the adaptation of the unconventional education.
- Comparison towards the liberalization of education in westernized countries.
5. Second Language
Acquisition (ESL) among Malaysian learners. / -Language Learning difficulties faced by University Students in Malaysia.
6. Language of Emotion on Social networking sites / - The usage of emoticon among undergraduates to convey their “emotion” and nonverbal gestures for task oriented and social oriented context on social network.
- Exploring on the importance of emoticons towards the digital communication.
15. / 1. Teaching Critical Thinking / -Perception on the use of technology in teaching critical thinking
Teacher Preparation in teaching critical thinking
2. Teaching Materials -
Development and Adaptation / -Evaluation of English Language Textbooks for Secondary School Learners
3. Motivation in Language
Learning / - Orientations and motivation in language learning
- Effectiveness of using motivation in language learning
16. / 1.Second Language Acquisition / - The Influences of Students’ L1 in the Acquisition of English Irregular Past-tense Forms
2. ELT Methodology – TESOL/
TESL / - Writing Strategies Instruction: Its Impact on Writing Tasks in ESP Classes
3. Language Teacher Education / - Teacher Cognition and Its Effects on Teaching Practices
4. Code- Switching / - The Role of the L1 in Second Language Classrooms
17. / 1. English and Education / - Learning style preference of ESL students in vernacular schools
- A comparison of English Syllabus used in private and government schools in Malaysia.
2. Reading Strategies-
Comprehensive Extending
Strategies / - Metacognitive reading strategies of high and low proficiency learners.
3. English for Specific Purposes / - Exploring the effectiveness of ESP programs in universities for workplace implementation.
4. Error Analysis / - Error analysis of ESL learners in universities
5. Teaching Approaches / - Effectiveness of inductive and deductive methods in the teaching of grammar.
- The effectiveness of using scaffolding techniques in teaching reading in primary schools
18. / 1. TESL/ ESP/ TESOL / - A case study of the teaching of English Language in a Tamil Primary School in Kampar, Perak.
2. Language in the Workplace / - The use of English Language in a multi-national company in Malaysia.
3. English Phonetics and
Pronunciation / - The influence of the mother tongue on the English Language pronunciation of Year Six students in a Tamil
Primary School in Kampar, Perak.
4. Varieties of English / - Some comparisons between Malaysian and Singaporean English.
5. Language Testing / - An item analysis of the Year Six English Language Exam paper in a primary school in Kampar.
6. Testing of Language Skills / - An analysis of the testing of English Language reading in a Chinese Primary School in Kampar.
7. Readability and Teaching of Reading / - Readability and Academic Word List Analyses of MUET Reading Texts.
8. Errors in Written English / - An error analysis of compositions in written English by Year 5 students in a Chinese Primary School in Kampar,
Perak.
19. / 1.Semiotics / -Semiotic analysis on print advertisements, documentary videos and homepages.
2. English for Specific Purposes / -The evaluation of the effectiveness of ESP courses for particular programs in a university.
3. Genre Analysis / - A Genre Analysis of Mary Schneider’s Weekly Article.
20. / 1. Translation studies / - Issues of literary translation, English-Chinese translation, translation theory, history of translation in the East and West, and teaching of translation.
2. Malaysian literature in English / - Malaysian narrative fiction in English, Malaysian poetry in English, development and history of Malaysian literature in English
3. Narratology (narrative studies) / - Concepts of narratology, classical narratology, cognitive narratology, natural narratology, unnatural narratology.
21. / 1. Literature / - Exploring Conflicts with Women Traditional Gender Roles : An analysis on Azar Nafisi'sReading Lolitain Tehran
- Between Cultural Worlds and Across Cultural Realms : A Racialised Femininity Literary Analysis onDaughter of Xanadu
2. Education / - Barriers and Challenges Encountered by Teachers in Integrating ICT in English Language Classroom
- Burnout among Educatots in UTAR : A Case Report
3.Classroom Management / - Classroom Management Problems Faced by Teachers in Kampar
22. / 1. New Literatures in English (Critical Theory) / - The Double Colonisation of Women in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things
2. Emerging Varieties of English in New Literatures / - Lexical Borrowings and the Nativization of English in Selected Malaysian Short Stories
3. Gender and Sexuality Studies / - Women and the Politics of (Dis)Embodiment: Linking Corporeality, Sexuality and Subjectivity in Rani Manicka’s Selected Novels
4. Feminist Stylistics / - “Innocent until Proven Filthy”: A Corpus-Based Feminist Stylistic Analysis of Beauty-Product Names
23. / 1. Semantics and Discourse
Analysis / - The use of factuality devices in a parliament meeting.
2. Sociolinguistics/Phonetics / - The relationship between socio-phonetics and identity in Malaysian socio-linguistic context
3. Testing & Evaluation / - Alternatives of communicative approaches in modern language testing