This study examines the state of migrants’ cultural adaptation in Malaysia, and how such an adaptation can help build our understanding of migrants’ life and employment experiences in the country. In doing so, this study has adopted a quantitative approach, with a completed survey towards 410 migrant respondents, living and working temporarily in Selangor, Malaysia. A multiple regression analysis finds that the three most significant predictors contributing to the respondents’ cultural adaptation are “positive experiences” (β = .677, p = .000), “closeness” (β = − .107, p = .008), and “social relationships” (β = .095, p = .032). While “positive experiences” and “social relationships” influence the migrant workers’ adaptation positively, the “closeness” predictor on the contrary (negative). Another predictor, “disconnection”, is found to be not statistically significant. The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) reveals significant differences in the respondents’ cultural adaptation based on such demographic characteristics as age, gender, level of education, nationality, length of employment, and sector of employment. For instance, female migrants are strongly associated with a higher level of “positive experiences” [F(1, 408) = 6.321, p = .013] and “social relationships” [F(1, 408) = 5.634, p = .018], while male migrants tend to rely on cultural proximity (i.e., “closeness”) [F(1, 408) = 6.828, p = .009]. The discussion section highlights attributes such as the gender factor in cultural adaptation, preservation of cultural identities, and creation of migrants’ symbolic places to understand how cultural adaptation intersects with the migrant workers’ daily lives and experiences. This study concludes that as Malaysia’s economy continues to rely on migrant workers, it needs to better understand the workers’ cultural adaptation and their far-reaching impact on their life experiences and employment conditions in the country.

The unprecedented global pandemic Covid-19 has changed our lives. The pandemic has also impacted the education sector. The significant change of educational methods from face-to-face learning to e-learning has undoubtedly resulted in a significant impact on the perceptions and effectiveness of e-learning among English language learners. This research is to ascertain the perceptions and effectiveness of learning English via e-learning through online surveys involving 337 students from a public university in Malaysia. The result on perceptions indicates that flexibility, freedom and interactivity are the reasons why students have positive inclinations towards e-learning, whilst less interaction with teachers, technical problems, and lack of conducive learning experience are the negative perceptions indicated by respondents. The result on the effectiveness of learning English via e-learning shows those students responded positively in learning writing, reading, listening and speaking. Generally, students were both impartial, and enjoyed e-learning. It is hoped that this research would broaden and widen the spectrum of e-learning among students during the pandemic.

Variasi leksikal dialek Melayu di negeri Kedah: Kajian geolinguistik (The variation of Malay lexical dialect In Kedah: A geolinguistics study)

School administration must pay attention to professional teachers’ roles rather than nonprofessional teachers as part of important human resources in imparting learning. This study aims to analyse the influence of leadership, work environment, and organisational culture on the teachers’ competence and performance in Prajnamitra Maitreya Foundation Pekanbaru, Indonesia. A total of 57 teachers participated in this research. A descriptive analysis of questionnaires and hypothesis analysis using path analysis was used to analyse the data from the saturated sampling method, where 57 teachers became the sample and were categorised based on age, gender, level of education, years of service, and work unit. Using Smart PLS (Partial Least Squares), this research revealed that leadership and work environment positively but non-significant affect the teachers’ competence. Meanwhile, organisational culture has a positive and significant effect on the teachers’ competence but a non-significant positive effect on the teachers’ performance. Thus, the work environment and teacher’s competence have a positive and significant effect on the teacher’s performance, yet leadership has a negative and non-significant effect on the teacher’s performance.

Transitiviti ada telah dibincangkan oleh sarjana lepas sebagai kata kerja monotransitif. Namun demikian, variasi struktur ayat yang digunakan oleh penutur natif memperlihatkan ada tidak sentiasa kekal monotransitif dalam struktur yang pelbagai. Hal ini disebabkan leksis ini memperlihatkan transitiviti yang berbeza terutamanya dalam ayat kewujudan. Oleh itu, kajian ini bertujuan mengemukakan analisis baharu transitiviti ada yang berfungsi sebagai K kewujudan dari perspektif teoretikal. Kajian ini memanfaatkan pangkalan Korpus DBP sebagai sumber data kajian beraplikasikan analisis teks digital. Data yang dipilih dihadkan kepada ayat kewujudan berstruktur Ada-DP-FPrep dan dianalisis menggunakan pendekatan sintaksis Minimalis. Melalui analisis deskriptif, Ujian Pengguguran Argumen membuktikan bahawa DP dan FPrep dalam struktur Ada-DP-FPrep berfungsi sebagai komplemen yang perlu hadir secara wajib untuk menghasilkan ayat kewujudan yang gramatis. Dari perspektif teoretikal, analisis cangkerang Fk membuktikan ada bersifat dwitransitif dalam konstruksi Ada-DP-FPrep. Kajian ini juga menafikan Carnie (2006) yang mendakwa leksikal kewujudan tidak mengagihkan peranan-q secara sejagat sebagaimana there dalam kajian bahasa Inggeris. Sebaliknya, operasi sintaksis dalam aras numerasi mendapati kepala K ada dalam struktur Ada-DP-FPrep mengagihkan peranan-q kepada komplemennya, iaitu DP ditandai TEMA dan FPrep ditandai LOKATIF. Kajian ini memberi impak terhadap penelitian transitiviti ada dari perspektif Minimalis khususnya sebagai K dwikomplemen yang dapat dimanfaatkan oleh pengkaji linguistik dan pelajar sintaksis generatif.   Kata kunci: Dwikomplemen; Minimalis; ada; korpus; Cangkerang Fk   ABSTRACT   The transitivity of ada has been discussed by past scholars as a monotransitive verb. However, the variation of sentence structure used by native speakers shows that ada is not always transitive in the various structures. This is because this lexis shows different transitivity especially in existential sentences. Therefore, this study aims to present a new analysis of transitivity of ada that functions as existential verb from a theoretical perspective. This study uses the DBP Corpus as a data source, applying digital text analysis. The selected data is limited to existential sentences structured Ada-DP-FPrep and analyzed using a Minimalist approach. Through descriptive analysis, the Argument Dropping Test proves that DP and FPrep in the Ada-DP-FPrep structure function as complements to produce grammatical existence sentences. From a theoretical perspective, vP shell analysis proves that ada is a ditransitive in the Ada-DP-FPrep construction. This study also denies Carnie (2006) who claims that all existential lexical does not distribute the q-role universally like the expletive there in English language studies. On the other hand, the q-marking in the vP shell finds that the head V in the Ada-DP-FPrep structure assigning the q-role to its complement, i.e. DP marked THEME and FPrep marked LOCATIVE. This study has an impact on existing transitivity research from a Minimalist perspective, especially as V dicomplement that can be used by linguistic researchers and students of generative syntax.   Keywords: dicomplement; Minimalist; ada; corpus; vP shells

This article explores the properties of unaccusatives in spoken Sudanese Arabic within the minimalist program. The overall aim is to testify the Unaccusative Hypothesis, in particular, the thematic and argument structure, locative inversion, there-insertion and passivization against the data from Sudanese Arabic. Grammatical judgment questionnaires were given to 10 native Sudanese speakers to test their intuition about unaccusatives. Parallel to the available literature, unaccusatives in Sudanese Arabic are defined by their semantic properties reflected syntactically in their thematic and argument structure. Unaccusatives can appear in locative inversion construction and in thereinsertion structures but cannot undergo passivization. This class of predicates takes a single argument, assigning the thematic role as Theme. Structurally, the single argument of unaccusative verbs moves from its canonical object position within VP to non-canonical surface subject position in [Spec, TP], making the structural derivation of unaccusative similar to that of passives, in that both lack external argument as well as both involve argument raising from lower position to higher position. The findings of this study manifest that languages of the world share some common properties even though they belong to different families. This in turn, provides rich information to comparative syntax, linguistic theories, and language typology.