Pulse of a Malaysian University

The Editors: Rodolfo Jacobson obtained degrees from the University of Panama and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He held professorial appointments at Cortland’s State University of New York College and at The University of Texas at San Antonio from which he retired in 1986 with the rank of Emeritus. He was Visiting Professor at Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia. Swee Heng Chan is Professor in the Department of English, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia. Her main research interests are in the areas of writing, discourse analysis, and language testing. She has published widely contributing to journals, books, book chapters, stories, modules, and other short articles.Abdullah Ain Nadzimah teaches a variety of undergraduate- and post-graduate-level linguistics courses in the Department of English, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia. Her research interest is primarily in language planning and policy, but she has also worked on bilingualism and the issue of language choice.

• Contents: Kasih Media Sandra: The Oration of the Minangkabau Pasambahan: An Ethno-Linguistic Study – Tamam Ezhar: Responding to the Terrorism Threat: Coverage of the US-Led Anti-Terror Campaign in Pro-Government and Islamic-Based Opposition Newspapers in Malaysia – Shamala Paramasivam: Power and Politeness in Negotiation Discourse – Abdullah Ain Nadzimah: The Communicative Sensitivity of Bilingual Societies: Are Malaysia’s Globalizing Tendencies Compatible with Her Multicultural Environment? – S. Abdullah Faiz: ‘Foreign’ Languages in the New Wor[l]d Order: Whither Linguistic Symbiosis? –Bee Eng Wong/Jan Choo Liu: The Acquisition of Gender, Number and Case in English Personal Pronouns –Talif Rosli/Abu Bakar Mohamed: Reading Attitude and University Students - A Pilot Study –Bee Hoon Tan: A Survey Study on Writing Needs and Writing Support at Universiti Putra Malaysia – Helen Tan/Swee Heng Chan: The Writing of Research Articles: How Do Native and Non-Native Writers Differ in the Use of Hedges? –Talif Rosli/Mohd. Jan Jariah: Gender in Literary Texts: How To Capture Its Symbolism.

«This book provides an inside look at the intellectual fabric of an academic unit in a Malaysian university and in so doing makes a unique contribution to our understanding of higher education in the Asian context. The authors in this edited volume reflect the rich linguistic and ethnic diversity of the Malaysian nation and their intellectual diversity across a broad range of disciplines is particularly refreshing. I find this work highly enlightening...truly a magnificent contribution dedicated to those creating new paths in transnational higher education and research.» (Robert D. Milk, Professor and Director, Division of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies, The University of Texas at San Antonio)«Rodolfo Jacobson’s edited compilation of research conducted by Malaysian linguists at Universiti Putra, Malaysia brings little known but solid research to the attention of linguists in the west.» (Maya Khemlani David, Professor of Sociolinguistics, University of Malaya)