In the Malaysian education system, attention is highly paid on reading words. Visual images are often treated as “decoration”, or are dismissed altogether (Kress & Leeuwen, 1996). Many local researchers (Saedah 1990, Bahiyah et al., 2008) have only analysed written texts to see how social practices deemed negative such as gender biasness are reflected in the words (lexical items) and linguistic structures. Currently, no systematic research has been undertaken in Malaysia to analyse visual images in English language school textbooks to study how visual images can reflect gender biasness. This research project addresses gender biasness found in visual images in school textbooks, i.e., the treatment of one gender over the other especially of women and girls. The project adopts three widely used approaches for analyzing visual images; content, socio semiotic and ethno-methodology analyses. This paper will however highlight its preliminary analysis focusing on image analysis based on participation, gender and representational meanings. Its aim is to identify the types of images and the representation of gender biasness and stereotyping found in the textbook. The preliminary findings should expose the sexism and gender biasness in the visual images of a sampled textbook; i.e. an English school textbook that is abound with visual images that sometimes, more so than written texts, can articulate more forcefully social and cultural meanings.

Ecological discourse analysis (EDA) has sparked growing attention in ecolinguistics. To reveal the status and trend of EDA (2014–2023), this research conducts a systematic literature review (SLR) on this topic, employing the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) statement as the established standard. After analysis, the SLR revealed that the number of EDA increased significantly between 2014 and 2023. Notably, Chinese scholars demonstrated the greatest focus on this topic. While EDA was widespread across various countries, international collaboration still needs to be enhanced. Meanwhile, some scholars tended to conduct EDA by adopting multiple research approaches. This SLR also unveiled the latest focuses on EDA, such as the language and its relationship with ecosophy, the ecological influence of discourses, the noteworthy topics of climate change and children’s literature, and the gap of the study on video discourse. This enables the employment of multimodal discourse research and interdisciplinary approaches for EDA to be the future trend. Since this SLR gives a comprehensive description of the trajectory of EDA, it can offer a meaningful reference for the studies relating to EDA in the linguistics domain.

The Discursive Construction of Modern Masculine Identities in Contemporary Malaysia

HRMARS is well established journal publisher based in Pakistan. It is publishing prominent journals in social sciences since 2011.

A personal advertisement constitutes a distinct form related to the small ad family of genres. While small adstraditionally offer an object or a service, the personal ad offers but, most essentially, seeks a romantic partner. Todate, studies of personal ads have mainly focused on patterns of represented traits in relation to identity, gender,age and sexuality in the verbal text. Given the self-promotional nature of the genre, image is also a powerful toolused as one of the resources for representing identity and engaging with others. Using social semiotic perspectiveand the framework of systemic functional linguistics, this study focuses on how identity is verbally and visuallyrealised in online personal ads. This paper has two aims: the first is to show how resources from verbal andvisual systems combine and complement one another to construe a variety of personal and social traits,clustering into different identity types. The second is to indicate the usefulness of these descriptions infacilitating a multimodal approach to the analysis of identity. The results revealed a convergence of verbal andvisual resources in identity performances, construing the slim and attractive woman and the funny but sensitiveguy, both aimed at invoking interest from potential partners. Identities emerged through the use of nominalgroups and processes and the categorizations associated with these resources. Images that are displayed on theprofile pages contain features that correspond to the tendered traits in the verbal description creating a holisticperformance of online identities.

There is no denying that palm oil industry has long been the backbone of Malaysia's economy. It is an industry that continues to be relevant in order to meet both local and global demand for edible oil and biofuel markets. The idea that the industry holds no appeal for youth is a common belief frequently shared by the youth themselves, as well as other stakeholders in agriculture. The key to engaging Malaysian youth and to increase their participation is to first understand their attitude and motivation towards the oil palm sector. This is the first step in understanding the factors underlying their motivation and gauging their level of engagement towards the sector. A set of questionnaires was distributed to 50 FELDA respondents followed by a focus group interview of 5 FELDA youth. Our qualitative data gauged the level of FELDA youth engagement through attitudinal resources while the survey measured the categorical and ordinal level of 8 industry constructs with variables such as gender, age, and education level. In general, the findings revealed insights into palm oil industry’s strengths and weaknesses in relation to positive and negative attitude, motivation, and engagement of FELDA youth towards the sector.