Current location : Centre for Applied Linguistics, Univ of Warwick

Affiliation/ Position               :   School of Education and Social Development,

                                                Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Locked Bag 2073, 88999 Kota Kinabalu,

                                                Sabah, Malaysia.  (TESL Programme)

Educational Records            :   M. Ed (TESOL) Universiti Sains Malaysia

                                                B. Ed (TESL) Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

Interests                             :   Reading in Second/Foreign language

                                                Literature in English

                                                Teacher Cognition

                                                Teacher Training

What now:

Currently I am in my third year for the Doctor of Education in Applied Linguistics and English Language Teaching.  I believe that reading is the most important skill in language learning as it provides input to other skills. English is officially a second language in Malaysia and though widely used throughout the country, it is a foreign language to many students. Thus, the English language teachers are the direct source of English to most students to learn the language and to communicate. Besides some researchers suggest that teachers have important roles in developing students' proficiency and teachers' beliefs could be an influential factor in their teaching reading practices. 

My research is on teachers' beliefs in teaching reading including the factors that might have influenced their current beliefs and teaching reading practices as well as exploring the culture of teaching reading among secondary school teachers. I have completed my data collection phase and at the moment, am analysing the data.

My supervisors are Ms Shelagh Rixon and Dr Annamaria Pinter http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/staff/teaching/pinter

Life in Warwick, UK and elsewhere :-)

I am grateful for the opportunity to study here. Million thanks to my sponsor; Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia and my employer; Universiti Malaysia Sabah. The experience was slightly different from Malaysian universities and getting to know people from various parts of the world was definitely exciting.

And I welcome any feedback, peferably the good ones ^_^

 Suhaida.Omar@warwick.ac.uk 

aida_omar_ums@yahoo.co.uk