Dr. Arshad Abd. Samad mendapat pendidikan peringkat menengah di Kolej Melayu Kuala Kangsar di Perak. Beliau memegang ijazah doktor falsafah daripada Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA pada tahun 1999 dan ijazah Master dan Bachelor dari Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA. Beliau dilantik sebagai pensyarah di Universiti Putra Malaysia pada tahun 1990 setelah menjawat jawatan guru di Sekolah Menengah Raja Ali, Kampong Batu, Kuala Lumpur dari tahun 1985. Kini beliau seorang pensyarah kanan dan memgang jawatan Ketua Jabatan di Jabatan Pendidikan Bahasa dan Kemanusiaan di Fakulti Pengajian Pendidikan, Universiti Putra Malaysia. Beliau terlibat dengan aktiviti penyelidikan dan penerbitan dalam bidang pengajaran Bahasa Inggeris sebagai bahasa kedua (TESL), terutamananya dalam pengajaran tatabahasa, pemerolehan bahasa, dan pengujian. Beliau juga terlibat dengan perundingan di pelbagai peringkat termasuk sebagai penilai program pengajian universiti tempatan dan untuk agensi kerajaan dan swasta. Antara penerbitan yang telah dihasilkan termasuklah Essentials of Language Testing for Malaysian Teachers (2002) dan Perspectives of Grammar in Education (2003).

Dr. Arshad Abd. Samad completed his high school education at the Malay College, Kuala Kangsar, Perak. He holds a doctoral degree from Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA which he received in 1999 and Master and Bachelor degrees from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA. He was appointed as a lecturer with University Putra Malaysia in 1990 after serving as a teacher at the Raja Ali Secondary School in Kampung Batu in Kuala Lumpur from 1985. Currently he is a senior lecturer and serves as the Head of Department at the Department of Language and Humanities Education, Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia. He is involved in research and publication in the field of Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL), especially in grammar instruction, language acquisition and testing. He is also involved in various levels of consultancy work including programme evaluation of several local universities as well as for government and private agencies. Among his publications are Essentials of Language Testing for Malaysian Teachers (2002) dan Perspectives of Grammar in Education (2003).

CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Grammar instruction

• Second language acquisition

• Corpus in language teaching and learning

• Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL)

• Language testing and assessment

Recent Research

• Examining the development of the English language of Malaysian school students through a comparison corpus (FRGS, RM30,000)

• The Dual System Project: The DSP technical committee for Social Values, Esteem for Work and the image of technical education and vocational training (Biro Tatanegara, RM858,000)

• Cost Effectiveness of Special Education Programmes, Ministry of Education, Malaysia (Ministry of Education, Malaysia, RM298,000)

• An examination of teaching practices, learning needs and climate of at-risk students (IRPA project, 279,000)

• A corpus based study on the written and oral English of Malaysian school students. (IRPA , 70,000).

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS (2004-2006)

• Maskanah Mohammad Lotfie & Arshad Abd. Samad.  (2006). The effects of
  instruction on Malay ESL learners' written past time forms. Journal of
  Language Studies. 2: 199-216.

• Arshad Abd. Samad and Nooreen Noordin (2006).  In-Service and Pre-service English Language Teachers’ Perceptions of Webquests.  Internet Journal of e-Language Learning and Teaching (IJeLLT), 3 (2), July, 2006, 1-13.

• Hawanum Hussein and Arshad Abd. Samad (2005).  Helping remedial students help themselves: Causal attribution and language proficiency.  The Journal of Asia TEFL, Korea, 2, (3), 49-65.

• Nooreen Noordin and Arshad Abd. Samad (2005).  Examining the importance of EST and ESL textbooks and materials: Objectives, content and form.  EST World, 1, (9), Vol. 4, 11 pages.

• Arshad Abd. Samad (2004).  Beyond concordance lines: Using concordances to investigate language development.  Internet Journal of e-Language Learning and Teaching (IjeLT) Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 44-50

• Rafiah Abdul Rahman, Zaitun Abdul Majid & Arshad Abd. Samad (2005).  The written protocol as an alternative reading comprehension test.  In Chan, S.H. (Ed.) ELT concerns in assessment.  Petaling Jaya: Sasbadi Press.  Pp. 93-110.

• Arshad Abd. Samad (2005).  Discourse contexts and article use among Malaysian school students.  In Wong, B.E.  (Ed.)  Second language acquisition: Selected Readings.  Petaling Jaya: Sasbadi Press. Pp. 77-92

• Maskanah Mohd. Lotfie and Arshad Abd. Samad (2006).  Noticing training and written accuracy among ESL learners.  Proceedings of ILANNS 2005: Issues inlanguage teaching and learning amongst non-native speakers: Visons and Challenges.  Shah Alam: Universiti Teknologi MARA, pp. 108-120

• Chelvenderan Rama Samy, Wong Su Luan, Malachi Edwin Vethamani & Arshad Abd.Samad (2005).  Prosiding Konvensyen Teknologi Pendidikan ke-18: Inovasi teknologi instruktional dalam pengajaran dan pembelajaran.  m.s. 51-54.

• Arshad Abd. Samad (2004).  Design and development of the English of Malaysian school students corpora.  Proceedings of the International Symposium on Learner Corpora in Asia, Showa University, Japan, pp. 59-64.

TEACHING

• EDU 3212 Computer Applications in TESL

• EDU 3200 Teaching Grammar in ESL

• EDU 3042 Testing and Evaluation

• EDU 5256 Language Testing and Evaluation

• EDU 52 Grammar Instruction

• EDU 5900 Research Design