Premium
Online activities of urban Malaysian adolescents: report of a pilot study
Author(s) -
Tan Kok Eng,
Yen Abdullah Melissa Ng Lee,
Guan Saw Kim
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
literacy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.649
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1741-4369
pISSN - 1741-4350
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-4369.2009.00536.x
Subject(s) - the internet , meaning (existential) , literacy , psychology , population , medical education , point (geometry) , pedagogy , mathematics education , sociology , medicine , demography , world wide web , computer science , psychotherapist , geometry , mathematics
The literacy practices of many communities today show new ways of meaning making in the contemporary, technological and digital culture. A number of Malaysian adolescents belong to this culture. This pilot study reports the preliminary findings of a larger study aimed at describing the online activities of Malaysian adolescents. Fifty‐four participants from an urban secondary school in Penang took part in this study. One finding showed that the percentages of language use on the Internet were: 80.6 per cent in English, 10.6 per cent in Bahasa Malaysia and 8.8 per cent in Chinese. In addition, the study also revealed some common websites that these adolescents frequented. The findings point to the need to investigate the extent of these online literacy practices beyond school among the adolescent population in Malaysia and to look into the implications for ESL education.