Cynthia James | Universiti Malaysia Sabah (original) (raw)

Conference Presentations by Cynthia James

Audiobooks are valuable tools that have a lot of untapped potentials and benefits. This research ... more Audiobooks are valuable tools that have a lot of untapped potentials and benefits. This research explores the two different roles that audiobooks can play in helping reluctant readers to improve their reading skills and to get them to be more interested in reading. The research is conducted in a Malaysian primary school in a small village. It is targeted on 20 children who have been identified as reluctant readers. In the first cycle of this research, the role of audiobooks is as an input for learning. Audiobooks are used to assist children in their reading through lessons in the classroom, in Book Club meetings and also at home. In the second cycle, the role of audiobooks is as an output or product of learning. The respondents are engaged in the Project Audiobook, where they are given the opportunity to work collaboratively with their peers to create audiobooks. The quantitative data in this research is gathered through pre and post tests as well as through a survey. The qualitative data is gathered through pre and post interviews. The findings of this research reveal that audiobooks are able to improve the respondents’ reading comprehension skills. The findings also show that audiobooks have the ability to engage reluctant readers and help develop their self-perceptions as readers. The research shows that the potentials of audiobooks can be optimised to the fullest when they are used in combination with effective strategies such as collaborative learning, ICT skills and communicative approach.

Keywords / phrases: audiobooks, reluctant readers, reading comprehension skills, self-perceptions as readers

The community outreach in SK Kunak 2, Kunak, Sabah started in 2011 through several meetings and w... more The community outreach in SK Kunak 2, Kunak, Sabah started in 2011 through several meetings and workshops with the parents under the British Council’s English Language Teachers Development Project (ELTDP). Today, it has expanded beyond the project and has transformed into a home-school partnership. The main aim is to create better learning opportunities for the students. This partnership is built through parent-teacher conferences, collaborative projects, home visits and other outreach activities. In this session, we will share our journey – how the partnership started and developed, the challenges that we faced, how it finally transformed into a long-term collaboration and how we plan to keep it going. We will also show how we inspire others with our story by sharing it in conferences, blog and publications. The impact of the partnership on teachers, parents and students is reflected through feedback from the community members, the students’ attitudes towards learning and the school’s academic performance. Throughout this session, we will share our story by showing pictures and videos that would prompt interactive discussions with the participants. Participants will be invited to reflect on the question: “Is going beyond the classroom worth it?”

The Community Outreach project in SK Kunak 2, Kunak, Sabah is initiated by the English Panel of t... more The Community Outreach project in SK Kunak 2, Kunak, Sabah is initiated by the English Panel of the school and has started since 2011. The main objective of the project is to build a partnership between the English Panel of SK Kunak 2 and the community where the students live. Partnerships are built through parent-teacher conferences, dialogues, workshops, social gatherings, classroom visits by the parents and home visits by the teachers. In the presentation, we will show how this partnership leads to better learning opportunities for the students. The outcomes of the project are reflected through feedbacks from the parents and community members, the students’ changed perception towards reading for pleasure and their attitudes towards English language as well as learning in general. The project has also managed to tackle several behavioural and disciplinary issues among the students. Most important of all, it has led to better mutual understandings between teachers and parents and managed to bridge the gap between the school and the community. The project is the first step towards building a community that has a deep love for reading and life-long learning.

This talk is about sharing the findings from a qualitative research on the impact of parental inv... more This talk is about sharing the findings from a qualitative research on the impact of parental involvement in children’s perceptions on reading. Two workshops had been conducted in SK Kunak 2 to introduce parents to rhymes and story-telling with children at home. To investigate the impact of these workshops on the children’s perceptions on reading, we recorded videos of pre-intervention and post-intervention interviews. The aim of the talk is to inspire the audience through some of the highlights of the research. Audience will also be engaged interactively through reflective activities, feedback sharing and Q&A sessions.

Centralised national examination is one of the most important yearly agenda in the Malaysia educa... more Centralised national examination is one of the most important yearly agenda in the Malaysia education system. Primary school learners who are in Year 6 are required to sit for the centralised national examination for primary schools known as the Primary School Achievement Test or Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR). Due to this, examination-oriented activities constitute a significant portion in the yearly action plans for most schools in Kunak, Sabah, Malaysia. This study focused on investigating the impact of these examination-oriented activities on the English language teachers’ experiences in the classroom, the impacts on the learners involved, and how a balance can be created between preparing for the examination and learning the language in meaningful context. Quantitative and qualitative data elicited through questionnaire, interviews and classroom observations on the teachers in three primary schools in Kunak seemed to show that while most English language teachers agreed that examination drills are important, there were concerns that over-emphases on examination may bring negative impacts on the learners’ language learning. To explore ways on how the much-needed balance can be created, I experimented with the ‘IDCA Model’ to blend the backwash effects of the examination with engaging language activities. This preliminary study appeared to have brought about positive development in classroom experiences for both the teachers and the learners. Future studies may explore the potential of utilising the backwash effects of examination to enrich English language teaching and learning within a heavily examination-oriented system.

I am very interested in exploring the subject of creativity in the language classroom. In my post... more I am very interested in exploring the subject of creativity in the language classroom. In my poster presentation, I introduce the IDCA Model. IDCA stands for Inspiration, Definition, Creativity and Acquisition. It is a model that I use to bridge the gap between heavily examination-oriented lessons and meaningful, creative language learning in the classroom. The poster will describe some pilot projects based on the model, conducted in my own classes and in other classes in three different schools. I will describe the impact of the model on teaching, on pupils’ learning and on the motivation of both teachers and learners. I will also share my personal reflections about the project and highlight some suggestions for further research.

The Pre-Writing Module 1 is a guide to help weaker upper-primary pupils acquire the basic skills ... more The Pre-Writing Module 1 is a guide to help weaker upper-primary pupils acquire the basic skills of sentence construction through scaffolded writing strategy. It focuses on sentences in Present Continuous Tense and sentences with the ‘There is…/There are’ structure. Using this module, pupils learn each part separately and combine these separate parts to form correct sentences. To support the teaching of sentence construction, the teacher uses ICT + Visualisations, a video project and a song. Pupils’ writing samples were collected to show progress in terms of the quality of the sentences. In the diagnostic test, most sentences written by the pupils were meaningless and unstructured. After two months of using the Pre-Writing Module 1, meaningful and grammatically-correct sentences began to emerge. After six months, pupils’ vocabulary had expanded and their understanding of sentence constructions had progressed in leaps and bounds. The pilot study was conducted in SK Kunak 2 for 7 months, and the findings show that the module had succeeded in improving the basic sentence construction skills among the pupils in the focus group.

Papers by Cynthia James

International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching

A 21st century teacher must communicate in the language and style of their students to ensure tha... more A 21st century teacher must communicate in the language and style of their students to ensure that their learning is meaningful. However, this is challenging, especially for teachers who are less familiar with using technology in teaching. To inspire a group of ESL ‘digital immigrant' teachers, a professional learning community (PLC) was set up. PLC consisted of both pre-service teachers (digital natives) and in-service teachers (digital immigrants). The two groups exchanged knowledge through a series of sharing sessions to demonstrate the technical aspects of technology, as well as to provide an understanding that technology has affordances and constraints. This case study investigates a group of in-service teachers who adopted the IDDIRR instructional design model (introduce, demonstrate, develop, implement, reflect, revise) to develop technology-based lessons for their ESL classrooms. The data for this study were collected through three main instruments: surveys, interviews a...

Recent Developments in Technology-Enhanced and Computer-Assisted Language Learning

This chapter is a review of a three-year journey into exploring the development, mobilisation, an... more This chapter is a review of a three-year journey into exploring the development, mobilisation, and enactment of Malaysian ESL teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge through a professional learning community known as ‘Going Digital'. The first part of the chapter summarises the investigation on the effectiveness of the TPACK-IDDIRR + PLC as a transformative model of professional development to engender technology integration practices in the classroom. The findings reveal that the model is effective in enhancing technology integration practices of ESL teachers. In the second part, individual experiences of four members of the ‘Going Digital' are narratively explored to understand the mobilisation and enactment of TPACK from professional development to practice in the classroom. The affordances and constraints of technology integration is explored in the third part. The chapter concludes with discussions on the interconnectedness of knowledge, context, and i...

This article introduces the IDCA Model ( Inspiration, Definition, Creativity and Acquisition). I... more This article introduces the IDCA Model ( Inspiration, Definition, Creativity and Acquisition). It is a model used to bridge the gap between heavily examination-oriented lessons and meaningful, creative language learning in the classroom. The article describes some pilot projects based on the model, conducted in examination classes in three different schools. The article shares the impact of the model on teaching, on pupils’ learning and on the motivation of both teachers and learners. It also shares the author's personal reflections about the project and highlight some suggestions for further research.

This article describes a community outreach project to enhance English language learning through ... more This article describes a community outreach project to enhance English language learning through family involvement in SK Kunak 2, Kunak, Sabah, Malaysia

Audiobooks are valuable tools that have a lot of untapped potentials and benefits. This research ... more Audiobooks are valuable tools that have a lot of untapped potentials and benefits. This research explores the two different roles that audiobooks can play in helping reluctant readers to improve their reading skills and to get them to be more interested in reading. The research is conducted in a Malaysian primary school in a small village. It is targeted on 20 children who have been identified as reluctant readers. In the first cycle of this research, the role of audiobooks is as an input for learning. Audiobooks accessed through the Internet and mobile devices are used to assist children in their reading. In the second cycle, the role of audiobooks is as an output or product of learning. The respondents are engaged in the Audiobook Project, where they are given the opportunity to work collaboratively with their peers to create audiobooks and share their works on a blog. The quantitative data in this research is gathered through pre and post tests as well as a survey, while the qualitative data is derived from pre and post interviews. The findings of this research suggest that audiobooks are able to improve the respondents' reading comprehension skills, engage reluctant readers and help develop their self-perception as readers. The findings also suggest that the potentials of audiobooks can be optimised to the fullest when they are used in combination with effective strategies such as collaborative learning, ICT integration and communicative approach.

Narrative writing is any kind of writing that recounts a story. While the love of stories among c... more Narrative writing is any kind of writing that recounts a story. While the love of stories among children is innate, getting them to put the stories down in writing can be perceived as a daunting task, especially when the task is associated with a high-stake test. The use of story prompts through the integration of technology and writing pedagogy can make this task less daunting for children. This paper aims to present findings based on a project involving 31 Year 6 students in one suburban primary school. The strategy was to engage digital-native children in story-creating process through the use of blog and mobile apps like Whatsapp and editing software for images, videos and sounds. Students used mobile devices to create a story prompt (an image, a video or a sound clip) for writing a story. The students used the story prompt to stimulate ideas about the setting, the characters, the mood and the plot of a story. The stories and the story prompts were shared on the class blog and the class Whatsapp group. The students’ personal reflections in their reflective journals demonstrate the positive effects story prompts have on reluctant writers’ attitudes towards narrative writing. The students’ scores in pre-test and post-test also suggest that story prompts have a role to play in improving the students’ performance in narrative writing tests.

Keywords / phrases: audiobooks, reluctant readers, reading comprehension skills, self-perceptions as readers

International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching

Recent Developments in Technology-Enhanced and Computer-Assisted Language Learning

Audiobooks are valuable tools that have a lot of untapped potentials and benefits. This research ... more Audiobooks are valuable tools that have a lot of untapped potentials and benefits. This research explores the two different roles that audiobooks can play in helping reluctant readers to improve their reading skills and to get them to be more interested in reading. The research is conducted in a Malaysian primary school in a small village. It is targeted on 20 children who have been identified as reluctant readers. In the first cycle of this research, the role of audiobooks is as an input for learning. Audiobooks accessed through the Internet and mobile devices are used to assist children in their reading. In the second cycle, the role of audiobooks is as an output or product of learning. The respondents are engaged in the Audiobook Project, where they are given the opportunity to work collaboratively with their peers to create audiobooks and share their works on a blog. The quantitative data in this research is gathered through pre and post tests as well as a survey, while the qualitative data is derived from pre and post interviews. The findings of this research suggest that audiobooks are able to improve the respondents' reading comprehension skills, engage reluctant readers and help develop their self-perception as readers. The findings also suggest that the potentials of audiobooks can be optimised to the fullest when they are used in combination with effective strategies such as collaborative learning, ICT integration and communicative approach.