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Since the creation of the first generation of computer-readable corpora, pioneered by the Brown C... more Since the creation of the first generation of computer-readable corpora, pioneered by the Brown Corpus in the 1970s, corpora have been extensively used in virtually all branches of linguistics. This article discusses corpus-based research and its development in the Malaysian linguistic scenario over the last three decades in considering its status and prospect as a research method. The discussion shows that research in Malay and English in the country has benefited from the use of corpora. In the last decade especially, there has been a surge of interest in corpora as a research tool in Malay and English, evidenced by the rise in research and publications on Malay linguistic description, English learner language, and Malaysian English as a local variety. Despite the encouraging development, there is still much to be gained from the use of corpora and corpus analysis in the linguistic description of Malay dialects, variation and pedagogy, English language pedagogy, Malaysian English and other language varieties including endangered and indigenous languages in the country.

Studies on difficulties in understanding scientific terms have shown that the problem is more ser... more Studies on difficulties in understanding scientific terms have shown that the problem is more serious among non-Western learners. The main reasons for this are the learners' pre-existing knowledge of scientific terms, their native language incommensurability with Western languages, and the polysemy of the words used to denote scientific concepts. The current study is an analysis of the conceptualisation of scientific concepts in two culturally different languages, i.e. Arabic and French, which represent a non-Western language and a Western language respectively. Physics concepts which are considered as some of the most challenging concepts for non-Western languages (Loo 2005; Aranador 2005) were selected for analysis. To this end, the terms that refer to two physics

The cultural connotations of the word "Islam" is analysed in this study using a corpus-based sema... more The cultural connotations of the word "Islam" is analysed in this study using a corpus-based semantic prosody analysis of Malaysian newspaper reports in English and Malay. Approximately 1.6 million words of Malaysian newspaper reports published between year 2014 and 2015 were used to develop two comparable sub-corpora of English and Malay data. The downward collocations (words with semantic content, i.e. nouns, verbs and adjectives) of the word "Islam" in the two sub-corpora formed the data for analysis and Partington's (2004) categorisation of semantic prosodies, i.e. positive, negative or neutral was employed in determining its prosody. The collocational patterns of "Islam" that emerged in the corpus of study suggest that the word has mostly positive and neutral prosodies in Malaysian newspapers. The cultural connotations of "Islam" that emerged from the analysis of the Malay corpus reflect the familiarity of Islam and its inherent link with the Malay language and culture, evident from the use and naturalisation of Arabic words pertaining to Islam in the Malay language. In the English corpus, the cultural connotations of "Islam" suggest its institutionalisation in the country's education system, banking system and financial establishments. These cultural connotations are in contrast with the generally negative representation of Islam in the Western and global discourse.

Language and Computers, Oct 5, 2003

Abstract: Codeswitching is an important socio-cultural phenomenon in many multilingual and biling... more Abstract: Codeswitching is an important socio-cultural phenomenon in many multilingual and bilingual communities. In Malaysia, where there is a diverse linguistic panorama of speech communities, codeswitching is the norm. Malaysian speakers of English often codeswitch between Malay and English. The use of native words and expressions in Malaysian English is not only restricted to spoken English, but also found in written English. This article, based on a small-scale corpus study of Malaysian English, attempts to ...

Abstrak Penggunaan bahasa yang berulang-ulang membentuk gugusan makna yang menggambarkan makna ti... more Abstrak Penggunaan bahasa yang berulang-ulang membentuk gugusan makna yang menggambarkan makna tipikal atau lazim, yang terdapat pada butir-butir leksis atau ekspresi bahasa. Dalam erti kata lain, ini ialah makna yang sentiasa diekspresikan oleh penutur dalam penggunaan bahasa. Makna yang diwarisi akibat penggunaan berulang-ulang menimbulkan konotasi budaya yang dapat mencerminkan realiti sosial penutur. Oleh hal yang demikian, kajian terhadap leksis yang berulang-ulang penting dalam kajian bahasa dan ideologi, dan boleh memberikan bukti empirikal tentang cara budaya boleh terkod dalam leksis. Makalah ini membincangkan satu kajian yang menganalisis konotasi budaya perkataan perempuan dan wanita dengan meneliti wacana, yakni nahu berulang-ulang yang terdapat pada kedua-dua perkataan tersebut. Perkataan perempuan dan wanita merupakan kata kunci penting bahasa Melayu yang sinonim pada tahap denotasi tetapi dianggap mempunyai reputasi yang berbeza disebabkan konotasi yang diwarisi. Kajian ini menggunakan bukti empirikal untuk menyiasat hal ini dengan meneliti prosodi semantik dan konotasi budaya yang diwarisi oleh perkataan tersebut. Ini dicapai melalui satu analisis kolokasi berasaskan korpus berkomputer terhadap wacana kedua-dua perkataan. Makalah ini melaporkan analisis tersebut dan meneliti nuansa dan konotasi budaya yang terdapat pada kedua-dua perkataan dan berusaha menghubungkan dapatan kajian dengan dunia sebenar, iaitu perubahan sosial dan budaya penutur. Abstract The use of repeated phrases and conventional ways of talking form a constellation of meanings that reflects the typical meanings that lexical 83

z t) F\ zt \J FD OTd pox '(J F+ r+ =H(D

Linguistics Linguistics Linguistics.

Jurnal Dewan Bahasa., 1999

Journal of Humanities, 2002

Vocabulary knowledge is an integral part of second/foreign language learning. Thus, using teachin... more Vocabulary knowledge is an integral part of second/foreign language learning. Thus, using teaching methods that can help learners retain and expand their vocabulary knowledge is necessary to facilitate the language learning process. The current research investigated the effectiveness of an interactive classroom method, known as Project-Based Learning (PBL), in helping Iranian EFL learners not just learn but retain new vocabulary knowledge. To this end, an experimental approach using two groups of participants (i.e. experimental and control) was employed. The experimental group was taught using the PBL method while the control group was taught using the conventional method. The findings of the study indicated that learners who were taught using the PBL approach (i.e. the experimental group) had a significant improvement in their vocabulary recall and retention rate. Besides, they even showed better retention of new vocabulary with higher level of difficulty. This supports previous findings on the effectiveness of PBL as a vocabulary teaching method in the EFL context which could contribute to the betterment of the existing teaching methods.

Since the creation of the first generation of computer-readable corpora, pioneered by the Brown C... more Since the creation of the first generation of computer-readable corpora, pioneered by the Brown Corpus in the 1970s, corpora have been extensively used in virtually all branches of linguistics. This article discusses corpus-based research and its development in the Malaysian linguistic scenario over the last three decades in considering its status and prospect as a research method. The discussion shows that research in Malay and English in the country has benefited from the use of corpora. In the last decade especially, there has been a surge of interest in corpora as a research tool in Malay and English, evidenced by the rise in research and publications on Malay linguistic description, English learner language, and Malaysian English as a local variety. Despite the encouraging development, there is still much to be gained from the use of corpora and corpus analysis in the linguistic description of Malay dialects, variation and pedagogy, English language pedagogy, Malaysian English and other language varieties including endangered and indigenous languages in the country.

Studies on difficulties in understanding scientific terms have shown that the problem is more ser... more Studies on difficulties in understanding scientific terms have shown that the problem is more serious among non-Western learners. The main reasons for this are the learners' pre-existing knowledge of scientific terms, their native language incommensurability with Western languages, and the polysemy of the words used to denote scientific concepts. The current study is an analysis of the conceptualisation of scientific concepts in two culturally different languages, i.e. Arabic and French, which represent a non-Western language and a Western language respectively. Physics concepts which are considered as some of the most challenging concepts for non-Western languages (Loo 2005; Aranador 2005) were selected for analysis. To this end, the terms that refer to two physics

The cultural connotations of the word "Islam" is analysed in this study using a corpus-based sema... more The cultural connotations of the word "Islam" is analysed in this study using a corpus-based semantic prosody analysis of Malaysian newspaper reports in English and Malay. Approximately 1.6 million words of Malaysian newspaper reports published between year 2014 and 2015 were used to develop two comparable sub-corpora of English and Malay data. The downward collocations (words with semantic content, i.e. nouns, verbs and adjectives) of the word "Islam" in the two sub-corpora formed the data for analysis and Partington's (2004) categorisation of semantic prosodies, i.e. positive, negative or neutral was employed in determining its prosody. The collocational patterns of "Islam" that emerged in the corpus of study suggest that the word has mostly positive and neutral prosodies in Malaysian newspapers. The cultural connotations of "Islam" that emerged from the analysis of the Malay corpus reflect the familiarity of Islam and its inherent link with the Malay language and culture, evident from the use and naturalisation of Arabic words pertaining to Islam in the Malay language. In the English corpus, the cultural connotations of "Islam" suggest its institutionalisation in the country's education system, banking system and financial establishments. These cultural connotations are in contrast with the generally negative representation of Islam in the Western and global discourse.

Language and Computers, Oct 5, 2003

Abstract: Codeswitching is an important socio-cultural phenomenon in many multilingual and biling... more Abstract: Codeswitching is an important socio-cultural phenomenon in many multilingual and bilingual communities. In Malaysia, where there is a diverse linguistic panorama of speech communities, codeswitching is the norm. Malaysian speakers of English often codeswitch between Malay and English. The use of native words and expressions in Malaysian English is not only restricted to spoken English, but also found in written English. This article, based on a small-scale corpus study of Malaysian English, attempts to ...

Abstrak Penggunaan bahasa yang berulang-ulang membentuk gugusan makna yang menggambarkan makna ti... more Abstrak Penggunaan bahasa yang berulang-ulang membentuk gugusan makna yang menggambarkan makna tipikal atau lazim, yang terdapat pada butir-butir leksis atau ekspresi bahasa. Dalam erti kata lain, ini ialah makna yang sentiasa diekspresikan oleh penutur dalam penggunaan bahasa. Makna yang diwarisi akibat penggunaan berulang-ulang menimbulkan konotasi budaya yang dapat mencerminkan realiti sosial penutur. Oleh hal yang demikian, kajian terhadap leksis yang berulang-ulang penting dalam kajian bahasa dan ideologi, dan boleh memberikan bukti empirikal tentang cara budaya boleh terkod dalam leksis. Makalah ini membincangkan satu kajian yang menganalisis konotasi budaya perkataan perempuan dan wanita dengan meneliti wacana, yakni nahu berulang-ulang yang terdapat pada kedua-dua perkataan tersebut. Perkataan perempuan dan wanita merupakan kata kunci penting bahasa Melayu yang sinonim pada tahap denotasi tetapi dianggap mempunyai reputasi yang berbeza disebabkan konotasi yang diwarisi. Kajian ini menggunakan bukti empirikal untuk menyiasat hal ini dengan meneliti prosodi semantik dan konotasi budaya yang diwarisi oleh perkataan tersebut. Ini dicapai melalui satu analisis kolokasi berasaskan korpus berkomputer terhadap wacana kedua-dua perkataan. Makalah ini melaporkan analisis tersebut dan meneliti nuansa dan konotasi budaya yang terdapat pada kedua-dua perkataan dan berusaha menghubungkan dapatan kajian dengan dunia sebenar, iaitu perubahan sosial dan budaya penutur. Abstract The use of repeated phrases and conventional ways of talking form a constellation of meanings that reflects the typical meanings that lexical 83

z t) F\ zt \J FD OTd pox '(J F+ r+ =H(D

Linguistics Linguistics Linguistics.

Jurnal Dewan Bahasa., 1999

Journal of Humanities, 2002

Vocabulary knowledge is an integral part of second/foreign language learning. Thus, using teachin... more Vocabulary knowledge is an integral part of second/foreign language learning. Thus, using teaching methods that can help learners retain and expand their vocabulary knowledge is necessary to facilitate the language learning process. The current research investigated the effectiveness of an interactive classroom method, known as Project-Based Learning (PBL), in helping Iranian EFL learners not just learn but retain new vocabulary knowledge. To this end, an experimental approach using two groups of participants (i.e. experimental and control) was employed. The experimental group was taught using the PBL method while the control group was taught using the conventional method. The findings of the study indicated that learners who were taught using the PBL approach (i.e. the experimental group) had a significant improvement in their vocabulary recall and retention rate. Besides, they even showed better retention of new vocabulary with higher level of difficulty. This supports previous findings on the effectiveness of PBL as a vocabulary teaching method in the EFL context which could contribute to the betterment of the existing teaching methods.

The main thrust of this book is the evolution of Malaysian English (ME), a localised variety of E... more The main thrust of this book is the evolution of Malaysian English (ME), a localised variety of English which is considered as a new variety of English within the World Englishes (WEs) framework. Evolutionary theories of new Englishes suggest that local varieties of English are the outcome of evolutionary processes that the English language experiences from the time it was transplanted until the present due to various local sociocultural and political factors. This is Tan's point of departure in investigating how ME has evolved within the Malaysian diverse cultural and linguistic scenery. The book analyses selected features of contemporary ME using a contact linguistics approach which takes into consideration the historical, linguistic, political and cultural factors that influenced the evolution of English in Malaysia throughout the period of colonial Malaya until the present. With this approach Tan argues that the evolutionary changes in ME can be observed, not just as linguistic outcomes of the contact between English and the languages of the local community, but also importantly as "manifestations of the sociohistorical aspects of the contact situation" (p. 1). The book comprises six chapters beginning with an introductory chapter which sets the background for the book's overall aim to study contemporary ME and how it has evolved due to its contact with two major speech communities in Malaysia, namely Malay and Chinese. This is achieved by examining three categories of linguistic features in ME, namely lexical borrowings, lexical creations and syntactic and lexical variation which have emerged in ME due to various linguistic factors. The second chapter is a solid discussion of the history of Malaysian English beginning with a description of the feature pool of ME. This and a geo-historical account of the Malay Peninsula which follows help to set the background for the language contact situation in British Malaya until the present. The third chapter titled "The Malaysian English Newspaper Corpus" is essentially the methodology chapter. As with many current studies on New Englishes, Tan's study used language corpora (5-million-word corpus of Malaysian English) to obtain data required for a systematic analysis of variation and change in the ME linguistic system. This chapter is similar to a thesis methodology chapter in terms of format and content. In chapters four and five, Tan discusses the findings of her study, focusing first on lexical borrowing and creation that are essentially deliberate innovations by efficient Malaysian