Datin Paduka Ir. Dr. Siti Hamisah Tapsir

Datin Paduka Ir. Dr. Siti Hamisah Tapsir is currently the Director General at the Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia. She oversees the implementation of the initiatives outlined in the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025 (Higher Education) for the public and private higher education institutions. Prior to her current appointment, Datin Paduka Siti was the Deputy Director General for the public and private universities for 8 years. She played the primary role in the establishment of a rating system for private colleges and the liberalisation of private higher education. She also contributed significantly in the formation of several foreign university branch campuses in Malaysia and the enhancement of the public universities’ policies and governance. Prior to her position at the Ministry, Datin Paduka was the Deputy Vice Chancellor of University Teknologi Malaysia. At the professional level, Datin Paduka Siti Hamisah Tapsir is a Board Member for Malaysia Board of Technologists, a registered engineer under the Board of Engineers Malaysia, a fellow of the Institute of Engineers Malaysia and an Associate Member of the American Civil Society of Engineers (2008-2012).

Dr Trevor Hay

Dr Trevor Hay is an Australian writer and scholar, who has been actively engaged with Asia for more than forty years. He started his professional career in education as a teacher of English in Australian high schools and became a lecturer in comparative and international education in teachers’ colleges in Melbourne, specialising in migrant and multicultural education, and language and literacy. He was the Victorian government’s first International Teaching Fellow in Nanjing, China, 1981-82, and became a senior lecturer in the University of Melbourne in 1990. He completed his PhD in the Faculty of Modern Asian Studies, Griffith University, in 2000 and is the author of six books, including one on modern Chinese drama, two biographies and three novels. He has also published numerous short stories and co-written the script for a radio adaptation of one of his books. He is a fluent speaker of Mandarin Chinese and has frequently worked with teachers in China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Britain and the United States, on intercultural education and the uses of storytelling in the teaching of English as a foreign language. He has written and co-written numerous journal articles on this subject and has been a chief investigator on two major research projects on uses of literature in intercultural language teaching and the use of social media and digital pedagogy. Dr Hay has supervised numerous doctoral students and is currently a supervisor and Honorary Senior Fellow in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education.

Professor Dr Zuraidah Mohd Don

She has built up a professorial profile in the course of her career in teaching and research, and in administration and management. In recent years, she has been increasingly called upon to apply her accumulated academic expertise in the development of the national programme for the teaching and learning of English. Her teaching is integrated with her research and publications, especially in discourse analysis, which is her original field of expertise, and which requires high level and detailed analysis across linguistics as a discipline, and the application of linguistic expertise to real world problems. Her experience of analysing written and spoken texts in English has helped her develop an in-depth knowledge of what is involved in communication and the skills that language users need to develop in order to become proficient in the target language. She is on the Editorial Board of two ISI-indexed journals, in addition to one Scopus-indexed journal and an international peerreviewed journal of linguistics published by Edinburgh University Press. Her work on English and in general linguistics is complemented by work on Malay. She was appointed external consultant on projects with DBP on word class in Malay, which led to two publications. She later worked with MIMOS as consultant on a number of electronic dictionary projects, and on speech synthesis for Malay. Work on speech synthesis led more recently to collaboration with Computer Science at UM on a project concerned with the realistic simulation of emotion in synthesised Malay speech. The copyright for this work has been secured, and a patent has been applied for. Her experience in university management began in 1992, when she was appointed acting head of the English Language Division of the Language Centre. Later as faculty dean from 2009, she endeavoured to raise the standing of the faculty, and achieve international recognition. This was a long term project, which involved setting a direction for the faculty and identifying niche areas, establishing links with the industrial sector, and developing an internationalisation strategy supported by the entire faculty management team. Among other measures, she obtained the support of two leading international professors in the field through the Icon programme, and encouraged the potential within the faculty for excellence in language teaching. Her experience of work at the national level began as one of the four founders of MUET. Her work on speech synthesis requires the ability to handle complex linguistic data at a sufficient level of accuracy to provide input for collaboration with colleagues in computer science. Her work on discourse requires the ability to work at a theoretical level across the field of linguistics. She was appointed the founding chair of the English Language Standards and Quality Council, which was given the task of creating a roadmap for English language education in Malaysia. At the time of her appointment, the MEB had already appeared, and put forward aspirations for the future development of education in Malaysia as a whole. In her capacity as chair of the ELSQC, she took on the responsibility for turning the aspirations set out in the MEB into firm timetabled plans, and for the production of a Roadmap for English language education in Malaysia to 2025. The implementation of the Roadmap is now underway, and her present task is to ensure that it is implemented effectively at all levels from preschool to university. She proposed the setting up of a Council of Language Deans, and became its founding chair.

Dr Aishah Abu Bakar

Her name is Aishah Binti Abu Bakar (Dr.). She is currently a director at Academic Development Management Division, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Higher Education. She is also working as senior lecturer at Civil Engineering, University of Malaya. This is her education background. She had her bachelor degree at Dundee University, Scotland in Bachelor Degree Civil Engineering BEng (Honrs). She continued her master degree in Masters Degree Concrete Technology, Construction and Management Master also at Dundee University, Scotland. She had her Doctoral Degree (PhD) in Geotechnical Engineering at Manchester University, United Kingdom.

Professor Dr Nuraihan Mat Daud

Prof. Nuraihan joined IIUM after completing her first degree in 1986. She is Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the International Islamic University Malaysia. She was Head of the Department from 1998-2001, then Deputy Dean (Academic Affairs), Human Sciences from 2003-2006. From 2006-2008, she was Dean of Academic Management and Admission Division. In 2008 to 2012, she was appointed as Dean, Centre for Languages and Pre-University Academic Development. In 2012, she was given the responsibility to establish the Faculty of Languages and Management and is the founding Dean of the Faculty. Prof. Nuraihan’s current research is in the use of technology in language learning and in second language learning. She has about 100 publications in terms of books, book chapters, articles and commissioned reports. She also sits on numerous committees at the national level which include grant review panel member for the Malaysian Ministry of Education (FRGS, PRGS, ERGS, NRGS and Higher Education Policy Research). Prof. Nuraihan sits on a number of Boards and Councils which include editorial board member of journals and e-learning Council of Malaysian Public Universities (MEIPTA). She is the current Chairperson of the Public University Council of Language Deans. She is also the Chairperson of the Benchmark Standards Committee for Language Programmes, and also a member of the Panel Auditors’ Promotion (Pemeringkatan) Committee, MQA.

Professor Dr Cameron Richards

Prof. Dr. Cameron Richards Dr. Cameron Richards' is an Australian academic with extensive experience of working in the Asia-Pacific region. He has also worked previously at Nanyang University Singapore, the Hong Kong Institute of Education, and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia as well as the University of Western Australia and QUT. He has a multi-disciplinary background which includes specializations in sustainability studies, policy research, academic research and writing methodology, curriculum and project design, leadership and organizational learning, and intercultural communication. He is semi-retired and currently has adjunct positions at Southern Cross University and Chulalongkorn University in addition to his regular sustainability projects consultancy work.

Dr Trevor Hay

Dr Trevor Hay is an Australian writer and scholar, who has been actively engaged with Asia for more than forty years. He started his professional career in education as a teacher of English in Australian high schools and became a lecturer in comparative and international education in teachers’ colleges in Melbourne, specialising in migrant and multicultural education, and language and literacy. He was the Victorian government’s first International Teaching Fellow in Nanjing, China, 1981-82, and became a senior lecturer in the University of Melbourne in 1990. He completed his PhD in the Faculty of Modern Asian Studies, Griffith University, in 2000 and is the author of six books, including one on modern Chinese drama, two biographies and three novels. He has also published numerous short stories and co-written the script for a radio adaptation of one of his books. He is a fluent speaker of Mandarin Chinese and has frequently worked with teachers in China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Britain and the United States, on intercultural education and the uses of storytelling in the teaching of English as a foreign language. He has written and co-written numerous journal articles on this subject and has been a chief investigator on two major research projects on uses of literature in intercultural language teaching and the use of social media and digital pedagogy. Dr Hay has supervised numerous doctoral students and is currently a supervisor and Honorary Senior Fellow in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education.

Professor Dr Hazita Azman

Her name is Hazita Azman (Prof. Dr.). She is currently working as Professor of Applied Linguistics and Language Literacy Studies at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Her specialisations are in Multiliteracy and language learning, TESL Methodology, Rural Language Literacy practices, Language Policy; Eye Movement research in Reading by Bilinguals. This is her education background. She studied Bachelor of Arts (TESL) at Wichita State University, USA. She continued her master degree in Master of Arts (Education) at University of Kansas, USA. Finally, she had her Doctor of Philosophy at University of Western Australia, Australia.

Assoc Prof Dr Siti Jamilah Bidin

Dr. Siti Jamilah Bidin is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics and also Deputy Dean of the School of Languages, Civilisation and Philosophy, Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). She earned her BA in Applied Linguistics with a Minor in Sociology from the University of Texas at El Paso, USA and received her Masters in Applied Linguistics (Language Teaching) from the University of Reading in 1995. She obtained a PhD in English Studies from the University of Nottingham, UK in 2004. Dr. Siti Jamilah is a former Director of UUM Language Centre (2010 – 2013), Head of Department of Language Studies (2016) and also a former Deputy Dean of Academic Affairs and Student Development (2006) at the Faculty of Communication and Modern Languages. She has been teaching at UUM for the past 26 years and she has organised and conducted language workshops for a British diplomat, Malaysian diplomat trainees and PTD officers, security guards, MARA college teachers, IELTS candidates, Law undergraduates and international postgraduates including academic staff and senior administrative officers. Currently she is teaching Research Methodology for postgraduate students. She also examines and supervises Masters dissertations and PhD theses in the areas of discourse-based grammar, pragmatics, English language teaching, English for Academic and Professional Purposes and language acquisition. Her research interests are classroom second language acquisition, academic writing, language and children’s traditional games, pragmatics and language assessment.

Assoc Prof Dr Halim Abd Raof

Dr. Abdul Halim Abdul Raof has been involved in teaching English to tertiary level students since the late 1980s. His interest lies in the area of Language Testing, Speaking skill, and English for Specific Purposes. He is currently Dean of the Language Academy, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru.