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0 INTRODUCTION

The article reviewed discusses a review of digital skills of Malaysian English language
teachers. This article was written by Mohd Zulhilmi Che Had and Radzuwan Ab Rashid. The
article was published in International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning (iJET)
in year 2019. Mainly, it involves the discussion of gap between teachers and students because
some teachers still stick to conventional methods of teaching especially in language learning
classes. On top of that, some of the teachers label themselves as digital immigrants as
opposed to digital natives. The conducted research starts by tracking the scenario of digital
natives in the country. Next, it reviews the government policies related to the integration of
ICT in education especially in English language education as the government has invested a
large amount of money to implement the plan. This is followed by the discussion on teacher’s
digital skills in conducting English language classes. It reveals that the barriers in ICT
integration are insufficient system support and teacher’s reluctance to adopt the integration in
English language lesson. Through the methodologies that have been carried out, it has been
proven that the writer is trying to emphasize the importance of using digital skills among
Malaysian school teachers in teaching English. This is due to the digital online world has
truly shaped all kind of today tasks whereby most of private and government sector affairs
are highly depending on it, as well as the education sector compared to the life in few years
back.

2.0 ADVANTAGES OF THE ARTICLE

Certainly, every article has its strength that makes it a good external source to refer to.
The writer demonstrated the article’s strength, which can be emulated by other writers or
researchers. In the first place, the writer really emphasizes the importance of online learning.
The writer describes the findings of his research in detail, one by one, in relation to the
variables that the writer wanted to measure in this article. The writer explains the four major
national education reforms in response to nationwide tensions over English language
performance issues by the Ministry of Education (MoE).

Another point of strength is the well-structured format where this article was written.
The writers wrote this article in the proper format, with an organized manner, even in a set
pattern from abstract to references. In this article, the writers provide easy-to-follow
sequences from the introduction to the efforts carried out, from the result to the discussion,
and from the conclusion to the references. The writers discuss each of the elements in the

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article with a good numbering system, which makes it easier for the reader to read and follow
the sequences from one element to the next. In the result and discussion section, for example,
the writer provides a good numbering system for the description in each paragraph. Such as
in paragraph Digital Natives versus Digital Immigrants in Malaysia, Government Policy
Related to ICT Integration in Education, The Use of Virtual Learning Environment to Teach
English and Continuous Professional Development.

Following that, this article made use of references from the most recent resources. The
writer used the most recent article or journal as supporting evidence and references in
preparing this article, which was published in 2018. This is good because this article was
prepared in the year 2019, so using resources from recent year is preferable because they can
help to relate with each other as the writer’s topic in this article is a current issue that is
happening in Malaysia. The writer did a good job in preparing latest references for this
article. Even though it is not latest article or journal, I bet the writer did a great job finding
the best and quality evidence.

3.0 DISADVANTAGES OF THE ARTICLE

Despite the stated advantages of the article previously, this article also consists of
weaknesses in certain parts. There are some flaws which the writer could perhaps avoid when
writing this article. First above all, the writers fail to provide a clear justification from the
teacher’s side. The writers need to listen to both sides. Digital skills are indeed important
nowadays but we need to know from a teacher's perspective as well. Perhaps to apply digital
skills to young teachers is not much of a problem. But for veteran teachers there may be
difficulties for them to adapt to new technology. Most of the veteran teachers today have
chosen to retire early because of the changing learning system. We cannot blame them
because it is not hundred percent the teacher's fault for not being able to adapt with digital
skills. This is due to the way they learned and our way of learning is different.

Next, the writers did a poor job in interpreting the result of the finding in this article.
This is because, after reading the whole article, I discovered that the writers did not provide a
closing statement for the use of virtual learning environment to teach English paragraph. The
writers went into detail on government policy related to ICT integration in education
paragraph. The writers applied these criteria, but not about the final statement in interpreting
the results. When this occurs, it appears that something is missing in the interpretation

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process. The writers should make a closing statement that demonstrates how the results
answer the paper’s research question.

4.0 OPINION OF THE CONCLUSION

By observing the conclusion in the article, it is true that digital skills are important in
school especially for English language teacher. I agree that school needs language teachers to
proficient in digital skills. It is due to the learning system that has changed to some extent
according to the flow of today. Even there are veteran teachers that could not adapt with this
issue, it doesn’t mean that this thing is not important. Moreover, the digital online world has
truly shaped all kind of today tasks whereby most of private and government sector affairs
are highly depending on it, as well as the education sector compared to the life in few years
back (Nur ‘Atikah, Ahmad Fauzi & Mas Nida, 2019).

Second, even though now Malaysia is out of the pandemic phase, there are still some
tasks in schools that are affected by the digital skills system. it may not be related to learning
in the classroom, but it still involves the teacher. For example, filling in attendance at school,
filling in student data at school, courses that teachers need to attend that may some of that
will be conducted online and teacher communication with parents. Therefore, the emergent
situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic exhibited the necessity for all teachers and students
to have digital skills (Perifanou, Anastasios & Katerina, 2021).

Last but not least, I agree that English language teachers need to learn digital skills.
This is because, teachers are one of the student’s medium to be exposed about this new
technologies and digital method to learn. In particular, teachers' beliefs about their ability to
deal with ICT are closely related to the implementation of ICT in school-related learning
environments (Charlott & Rebecca 2021). Both teachers' digital competence and their
competence beliefs related to information and communications technology (ICT) are
important for the successful integration of digital technology in teaching and learning
settings.

5.0 CONCLUSION

In conclusion, I believe the writers did an excellent job in preparing this extremely
useful article. This article is very useful and can be used as a reference for other researchers
who wanted to know about Malaysian English language teacher’s digital skills. Although
there are some deficiencies and weaknesses in this article, I believe that the writers can

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improve it by making some changes. I believe that this research can benefit outsiders and
open the eyes of some individuals who still consider digital skills among teachers to be
unimportant.