Assignment English Forum

INSTITUT PENDIDIKAN GURU KAMPUS TUN HUSSEIN ONN,

BATU PAHAT, JOHOR

PROGRAM PERSEDIAAN IJAZAH SARJANA MUDA PERGURUAN (PPISMP)

SEMESTER 1 YEAR 1

TASK 1 (GROUP DISCUSSION)

STUDENT’S NAME : NOR IZZAH ATHIRAH BINTI NORJAHAN

IDENTIFICATION CARD NO. : 020529030882

INDEX NO. : 2021292310120

GROUP/UNIT : BM5

COURSE CODE : GEEC1052

COURSE NAME : EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IN ENGLISH

LECTURER’S NAME : DR. YEE BEE CHOO

DEPARTMENT/UNIT : LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT

DATE OF SUBMISSION : 23/10/2021

Acknowledgment:

I hereby acknowledged that I have received and understood the feedback given by
the lecturer.

Student’s Signature: IZZAH Date: 23/10/2021

Script Discussion

Moderator : Assalamualaikum and a very good day I wish to all of you. Welcome to
our forum for today. As we know, “Pandemic Covid-19” is a current big issue, which
enable you to think about the topics that we had highlighted and we are trying to
solve the issues together by sharing interesting idea and though, which will delivered
by our guests. Today, we would like to highlight a topic that is quite interesting to be
discussed on which is “work from home”. I am sure that everyone of us has our own
opinion and thought with this topic. Before we proceed to our forum, I would like to
introduce our panelist for today. Our first panelist is Dr Athirah, Senior Lecture of
University Malaya, how are you today Dr ?

Dr. Athirah : Hi.. I’m good and glad to be here.

Moderator : Next to her is our specially Panel 2, Miss Izzah CEO of Hijabista
Company. How are you today miss?

Miss izzah : I’m also good thank you for asking me.

Moderator : Ok, let’s proceed to our forum, Dr. Athirah, we know that so many
countries are easing their economic and social restrictions due to the Covid-19
pandemic, including Malaysia, there’s a lot of talk about “the new normal”. What
does this mean?

Dr. Athirah : Ok, fistly thank you for the question from moderator. Ok, as we know
even we had found a cure or a vaccine for Covid-19, we still have to adjust to a “new
normal”, meaning a new way of living and going about our lives, work and
interactions with other people. Please bear in mind that we may have to live in the
“new normal” for a very long time. Many diseases caused by viruses have no cure to
this day, not even the common cold. There are no vaccines for many viruses either.
But we have learned to adapt our lifestyles to live with them. Look at HIV (human
immunodeficiency virus). It has been around since the 1980s, and possibly even
before then, although not as widespread. We still have not found a vaccine for it. We
have anti-retroviral drugs that can control the disease, but not cure it. But we have
learned to adapt to having HIV in the world. People use condoms when they have
sex to prevent potentially spreading or being infected with the virus, as well as other
sexually-transmitted diseases. Homosexuals, who are at higher risk of being infected
by the virus, go for yearly HIV testing. We might have to adapt to Covid-19 too.
Unlike HIV, Covid-19 is a lot more contagious and infectious, and it is not really
associated with a certain lifestyle. Therefore, our level of adaptation and changes we

have to make in our lives is much higher. These adaptations and changes are
considered our “new normal”.

Moderator : So Dr, without a vaccine, what will our new normal be?

Dr. Athirah : Ok, there’s only one thing certain. Our new normal will keep changing,
and it will change very quickly. You may have to wear a face mask outside all the
time. Even if the Government does not mandate it, you will still feel better
psychologically when you wear a face mask. Your employer may ask you to work
from home and do virtual meetings a lot more than before. Schools may reduce the
size of their classes and do a lot of virtual teaching. You may cook a lot more at
home, or have food delivered a lot more often than before. E-businesses like online
food ordering, online shopping and video on demand, will thrive. Restaurants may no
longer be able to seat the same number of people, due to social distancing
requirements. There will be increased sanitation and cleaning everywhere. You will
try to keep a 2 meter distance from everyone. Polite personal space will have a wider
circumference. Temperature checks will be conducted everywhere. Cinemas and
airlines will mandate spaced out seating, as will public transport like buses and
trains. They may also charge you double the price to cover their operations. Same
for live concerts or sports or alternatively, those may be cancelled indefinitely or only
performed or played for broadcast. There will be a lot more requests for video on
demand. You may also be required to install contact tracing apps on your phone
such as MySejahtera.

Moderator : Ok, last question for Dr. Athirah. What do you think makes online
teaching and learning successful?

Dr. Athirah : Thank you for the question. Ensuring success in online learning involves
excellent communications skills, careful design and active involvement of the
learners. Clear communication with students implies clarity over expectations. Well
explained tasks with well-explained rationales such as what they need to do, and
why you are asking them to do it. Listening carefully to what students are saying
about their experiences, what is working well for them and what is not, is also an
important part of good communication. Teachers should also dedicate a sufficient
amount of time to careful design, through shifting their time ‘upstream’, as careful
design pays off. Finally, they should allow for encourage, student co-design or co-
configuration of learning activities and environments. Students will modify tasks
teachers set for them and they will reconfigure learning environments, recommended

tools and resources, working relationships etc. So, teachers must not assume that
what they design and specify will be followed 100% by the students and this totally
fine as students’ engagement in the design and execution of learning tasks functions
positively towards their self-regulation.

Moderator: Thank you for your explanation Dr Athirah. Let’s move on to our second
panel. Miss Izzah, how can you manage employee performance when they work
from home?

Miss Izzah : Thank you moderator for asking me the question. Ok, managing
performance outside the office presents new challenges, particularly as monitoring
employees behaviour when they are not physically present is difficult. Employers like
me must make clear through their policies what is suitable and acceptable behaviour
when working from home. We should also maintain an appropriate level of contact
with employees to monitor progress. However, an excessive attempts to supervise
homeworkers, such as routinely intercepting emails or frequent “check-up” phone
calls should be avoided as they could result in allegations of harassment or a breach
of the implied duty of trust and confidence. If they do not perform, we must take an
action for this problem. So, we attempt to hold any grievance, disciplinary or
performance management meetings face-to-face but during this pandemic we can
manage the meeting over video.

Moderator : So , what action are you taking for solve your employees’ problem
mental health?

Miss Izzah : I will set up a dedicated work space and set boundaries for other
household employees. Create more opportunities for them to stay connected by
communicating through regular chats and team catch-ups. Advice them to eat
healthily and taking regular exercise can also help them improve their mental health.

Moderator : Perhaps, if you don’t mind. Can I ask you some question?

Miss Izzah: Yes, sure.

Moderator : What if the employee’s home environment isn’t suitable to work in?

Miss Izzah : For me ,all the employers must have a duty to provide a safe place of
work for their employees and this duty extends to the home office. If they do not
have the necessary equipment to work from home safely, such as a laptop or office

chair, we as the responsible employers immediately consider contributing financially
towards purchasing such equipment. It is also important to provided their needed to
work at home comfortly. We also consider keeping some part of our office open, so
that they whose home environment is not suitable to work in can choose to come to
the office. For any individuals whose circumstances are more complex, they should
take advice on a case-by-case basis. That’s all from me, thank you.

Moderator: Thank you miss Izzah, that was a great point to be said. Finally we have
come to the end of our forum where we have shared a lot of knowledge which we
don’t even know or thought before well, from what all our panellist shared just now,
there is some interesting issues about vaccine and the challenge of work from
home. That’s all from us, thank you.