Articles, Conference and Workshop Papers Collection

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The Perceived Importance of Communication Skills Courses among University Students: the case of two universities in Tanzania
(02-02-15) Komba, S. C.
This article is about the perceived importance of communication skills courses among Tanzanian university students. A total of 134 undergraduate students, randomly selected from two Tanzanian universities, were involved in this study. The study adopted a case study design in order to have an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon under investigation. The data were collected through interview schedules and they were analysed using thematic content analysis in which they were coded and classified according to themes generated from the responses. The findings revealed that communication skills courses were perceived by the majority of the respondents as important courses for the acquisition of communication skills needed in academic settings. It is recommended that universities should strive to improve the delivery of the courses by ensuring that both human and material resources are adequately available for the purpose of enabling students to benefit more from the courses
Perspectives on the status of traditional medicine in Tanzania
(2012) Kira, Ernest S.; Komba, Sotco C.
This article entails student teachers’ perceptions of the status of traditional medicine in Tanzania. A broad focus group discussion was held with 50 student teachers taking Bachelor of Science with education at the Dar es Salaam University College of education in Tanzania. However, such student teachers’ responses were merged with interview responses from regular teachers, elders, customers of traditional medicine and traditional healers from both Dar es Salaam and Morogoro regions. Findings indicated that all respondents appreciated the existence of the African traditional medicine alongside the modern ones. However, it seemed that the modern medicines are far more popular than traditional ones especially in towns and cities. Although the respondents admitted to have heard and or witnessed some cases where some modern medicines proved failure but managed by traditional medicine, very few believed so. This could be attributed to a scenario that only a small proportion of the respondents grew in environments conducive for using traditional medicine. Hence, it was concluded that, future plans that focus on integrating some important aspects of the African traditional medicine in the formal school curriculum can serve dual purposes of improving people’s health and enhancing biodiversity conservation strategies for both rural and urban societies
Comparison between students’ academic performance and their abilities in written English language skills: A Tanzanian perspective
(2012) Komba, S. C.; Kafanabo, E. J.; Njabili, A. F.
This article is based on the study which sought to compare between the students’ academic performance and their abilities in written English Language Skills. The study was conducted at the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Tanzania. The respondents were 358 finalists from six degree programmes selected randomly out of the 20 degree programmes at the university. The findings indicated that there was a statistically significant positive relationship between the students’ abilities in the English Writing Skills Test (EWST) and their University GPAs (r=314, p< 0.01). However, the content analysis of the EWST essays showed that the students had serious problems in spelling, using appropriate forms of adjectives, punctuation marks, simple present tense, recognizing passive voice and using relative pronouns and prepositions.
The Link between English language proficiency and academic performance: a pedagogical perspective in Tanzanian Secondary Schools
(Sciedu Press, 2012) Wilson, B.; Komba, S.C.
English, the Language of Instruction (LOI), has fallen victim of blame of some scholars as the cause of poor performance in secondary schools in Tanzania. The blame is directed at English strongly up until recent years (2010 and 2011) when the results of national examinations have been extremely worse. It seems, the public presumes that there is relationship between students’ academic success and their abilities in the LOI. This paper sought to investigate whether there is relationship between English Language Proficiency (ELP) and academic performance in Tanzanian secondary schools. The data used were obtained by administering an ELP test and a review of students’ reports, and were quantitatively analyzed using a computer software, Statistical Package for Software System (SPSS) version 18. The study revealed that there is a significant weak positive relationship between ELP and students’ academic achievement. The relationship was significant in English and insignificant in other subjects which were investigated. On the basis of the findings of this study, it is argued that academic success is a function of several variables and not only proficiency in the LOI. It is therefore recommended that the responsible authorities should invest in improving English language proficiency among students since ELP is positively connected with academic success.
The effectiveness of teaching practice in improving student teachers’ teaching skills in Tanzania
(2013) Komba, S.C.; Kira, E.S.
This article is based on the study which sought to investigate the effectiveness of Teaching Practice in improving student teachers’ teaching skills in Tanzania. The study was designed to find how Teaching Practice was organized by the teacher training universities and whether the Teaching Practice was effective in improving student teachers’ teaching skills. The qualitative research approach was adopted and the study was conducted in Iringa, Morogoro, Dar es Salaam, and Kilimanjaro regions of Tanzania Mainland. A total of 191 student teachers were involved in the study. The findings indicated that the duration spent for the Teaching Practice was inadequate for student teachers to acquire the skills required for effective teaching. Furthermore, the supervision of student teachers during the Teaching Practice was overall, ineffective as the supervisors were not flexible enough to guide, advise, and discuss with student teachers on the strengths and weaknesses revealed during the teaching. Regarding the effectiveness of the Teaching Practice, 76% of the respondents indicated that Teaching Practice was ineffective in improving their teaching skills. Since the majority of respondents indicated that they did not benefit much from the Teaching Practice, there is need for the responsible authorities to review the procedures for carrying out Teaching Practice in order to improve the quality of teachers. Keywords: Effectiveness, Teaching Practice, Teaching skills, Tanzania
Informal institutions and female students’ school engagement: A case of Mvomero district ward schools
(International Journal of Education and Research, 2013) Mageka, R.; Mahonge, C.
Institutions play a crucial role in students’ educational process. This study was conducted in Mvomero district to assess the effect of informal institutions on educational engagement of female students in ward secondary schools. Data were collected through survey, document review, focus group discussion and key-informant interviews. Purposive sampling was used whereby ward secondary schools were a target. Then study respondents were randomly selected. A sample of 80 respondents was interviewed. The collected data were analyzed by using statistical package for social science (SPSS) computer program for quantitative data, and content analysis for textual data. The results indicated that informal rules (socio-cultural practices and traditional norms) affected female student’s educational engagement; the majority of respondents viewed the institutions as an obstacle. As such, various measures were recommended to be taken by different stakeholders such as NGOs, government agencies, teachers, parents, guardians and students themselves to ensure informal rules including social-cultural and traditional norms are regulated to make female students optimize their educational opportunities.
Out-scaling of hybrid institution for socio-economic development and environmental conservation: The case of Mbinga district, Tanzania
(IJPSS, 2013) Mahonge, C. P. I.
I present a case study of institutional hybridization in Mbinga district within and across politically defined boundaries after the occurrence of stress, which purist institutions (state institutions or customary institutions independently) fail to contain. Thus, based on the experiential learning and facilitation by non-local-based players, a hybrid institution is designed in one spatial space at a certain temporal point. This seems to be successful in addressing the stress. As such, other social players at another politically defined boundary adapt the hybrid institution based on their local context. Similarly, some actions governed by the hybrid institution at specific spaces of time and place out-scale across the politically defined boundaries to other spatial and temporal spaces. As a conclusion, the implications of out-scaling and hybridization are given with reference to socio-economic development and environmental conservation.
Linking livelihood improvement and environmental conservation: Case of east Uluguru mountains in Tanzania
(International Journal of Environmental Science, Management and Engineering Research, 2013) Mattee, A. Z.; Mahonge, C. P. I.; Nsenga, J. V.; Kayeye, H.
Livelihoods improvement and environmental management need to be linked. In order to attain sustainable livelihoods and environmental management, it is important to empower natural resource users with skills on the interdependencies between livelihoods and natural environment. Among the strategies to achieve this is through an action research wherein various resource use options are tested and the interplay among the tested options is determined. In this paper, we present and analyse results obtained from an action research that focused on participatory improvement of farming practices and rehabilitation of watershed through tree nursery management and tree planting in Nyachilo village situated in the East Uluguru Mountains. In the farming trial, we tested conventional ridges, ngolo, contour, and traditional slash and burn flat cultivation (the control) technologies on the basis of their potential to improve yields and control soil erosion. The findings indicated that ngolo ranked the first whereas conventional slash and burn technology ranked the last; farmers showed a desire to learn about useful technologies to improve their traditional farming system. As for tree planting, there existed internal heterogeneities as reflected in the heterogeneous participation of local people in tree nursery management implying that in order to thoroughly understand the community, it is necessary to unpack it and analyze its constituent parts. We concluded that a though analysis of the dispersion of a given community is imperative as such scrutiny may lead to an accurate determination of the practical mix of the community strata for effecting the desired ends.
Teachers’ questioning techniques in advanced level Chemistry lessons: a Tanzanian perspective
(2013) Kira, E.; Komba, S. C.; Kafanabo, E.; Tilya, F.
This study investigated the extent to which teachers’ questioning techniques and the way teachers handled students’ responses facilitated students’ learning and promoted their thinking skills. The study focused on three secondary schools in Dar es Salaam. The data collection process involved classroom observations during chemistry lessons and interviews of 10 chemistry teachers. The findings showed that 80% of the observed teachers had a moderate ability in using questioning techniques to measure students’ understanding. The interesting observation in all schools was that teachers interacted frequently with active students and bothered less to involve the least active ones. Moreover, above 80% of all teachers had problems of promoting students’ thinking by maintaining a balance between the openended and close-ended questions or between convergent and divergent questions. Also, the teachers indicated severe weaknesses in guiding classroom discussions through effective questioning as their abilities in probing were low. Thus, in-service program for these teachers may improve their classroom questioning behaviour.
Trade-offs between communal and private institutions in natural resource management along the spaces of time and space: Reflection from four case studies in Tanzania
(IJPSS, 2014) Mahonge, C. P. I.
Classic scholars Hardin and Ostrom emerged with counter-traditions to each other in favor of private and communal natural resource management institutions respectively. In these premises, Hardin argues that it is not possible for local people cooperatively to manage a common resource sustainably because individuals in the community will always be driven by the rationale of ensuring more of personal gains at the expense of others. And, according to him, because every individual is driven by the same rationality the common will ultimately collapse, the state he calls “tragedy of the commons”. On the contrary, Ostrom opposes Hardin by arguing that the community has the power of devising rules systems that enable it to manage the common sustainably. Impliedly, the two scholars portray that either communal or private institutions will prevail at specific spaces of time and place but not both. In this article, I challenge this contention using four case studies that have substantiated the use of both communal and private institutions by the same social players at different time-space, and/or co-existence of both communal and private institutions at the same spaces of time and/or place.
The influence of language of instruction on students’ academic outcomes: the experience of secondary schools in Morogoro, Tanzania
(SUA, 2014) Mwakapina, Job Wilson; Mhandeni, Abdulkarim Shaban
Many have ascribed the poor performance that secondary school students in Tanzania have suffered in various school subjects in the national examinations to the students’ weakness in English, the Language of Instruction (LoI). This brief paper seeks to determine the influence of LoI on students’ academic success in secondary schools. An English Language Proficiency Test (ELPT) and students’ academic archival reports provided the data and a Statistical Package for Software System (SPSS) facilitated data analysis. Analysis brought to light the finding that proficiency in LoI affects performance only to a slight extent. Non-ELP factors exert a stronger influence on performance in subjects other than English while – not surprisingly – English proficiency does indeed exercise much influence on English achievement. The study concludes that academic performance is a function of several variables and that ELP plays a role in performance but not the major role. The study recommends that the government (1) emphasize the improvement of ELP, since the greater the improvement, the more a positive influence may be anticipated; and (2) consider using ELP as an additional eligibility criterion for admission into higher education.
Testing of decision making tools for village land use planning and natural resources management in Kilimanjaro region
(Scientific Research, 2014) Sangeda, A. Z.; Kahimba, F. C.; Kashaga, R. A.; Semu, E.; Mahonge, C. P.; Mkanda, F. X.
This paper focuses on participatory testing of decision making tools (DMTs) at village level to assist in development of land use plans (LUPs) for sustainable land management (SLM) in Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania. Data were collected using conditional surveys through key informant interviews with the project’s district stakeholders in each district, focused group discussions with selected villagers and participatory mapping of natural resources. Soil health, land degradation, carbon stock, and hydrological conditions were assessed in the seven pilot villages in all seven districts using DMTs as part of testing and validation. Results indicated soils of poor to medium health, and land degradation as portrayed by gullies and wind erosion in lowlands and better in uplands. Carbon and forest disturbance status could not be assessed using one-year data but hydrological analysis revealed that water resources were relatively good in uplands and poor in the lowlands. Challenges with regard to land use include increased gully erosion, decreased stream flow, reduced vegetation cover due to shifting from coffee with tree sheds to annual crops farming, cultivation near water sources, and overgrazing. Empowering the community with decision making tools at village level is essential to ensure that village land uses are planned in a participatory manner for sustainable land and natural resources management in Kilimanjaro and other regions in Tanzania.
Understanding the language of tourism: Tanzanian perspective
(International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2014) Chiwanga, F. E.
Different from other languages such as newspeak, journalese and many others, tourism has its own linguistic line. The language of tourism necessitates tourism practitioners and tourists to endlessly learn it. It covers all forms of touristic communication at every stage of journey, safari and stay. This paper seeks to engage in the mediation between expertise about language and the actual language use in the tourism domain and highlights areas that need clear understanding. It not only helps tourism practitioners sell effectively available tourism products and services, and communicate competently with tourists and colleagues in the industry but also government officials in curricula and policy matters.We have found, through ethno-methodological and textual data, more features of language of tourism through Tanzanian tourism practitioners.
Assessment of English language oral communicative competence : a case of tour guides in Arusha, Tanzania
(2014-10) Chiwanga, Fredrick Ezekiel
The current study is an assessment of English language oral communicative competence of Tanzanian tour guides. It measures their level of the aforementioned competence, which is essential for tourism business. Additionally, it probes into how practising tour guiding with the English language influences their mastery of the language. Three methods of date collection were used for a triangulation purpose. These are direct observation, oral discourse test, and semi-structured interview with the aid of a voice recorder, camcorder and note-taking. Discourse analysis was used in this work as a method of analysis. Some data were analysed using descriptive statistics with the aid of Microsoft Excel. The main finding of the study is that Tanzanian tour guides are moderately competent in English language oral communicative competence at an average level of 63%. Generally, the interaction between tour guides and tourists has positive effects on the guides‘ oral communicative competence in that with time, it sharpens their oral communicative competence and improves their knowledge, skills and attitudes. The study recommends that tour guides should generate a culture of practising their spoken English and pay attention to sociocultural aspects that go hand in hand with oral communication. The study calls upon the government to produce competent language teachers and make sure that a curriculum for professional tour guides is commonly used by all institutions offering tour guiding courses, and English, the language of business, be given the first priority for imparting and acquisition of knowledge and skills.
An investigation of teachers’ perceptions of the implementation of the "Big Results Now" initiative in Tanzanian education sector
(2015) Komba, S. C.; Sigala, J.N.
This study was conducted in order to investigate teachers’ perceptions of the implementation of the Big Results Now (BRN) initiative in Tanzanian education sector. The specific objectives of the study were to examine teachers’ perceptions of the implementation of the BRN initiative in Tanzanian education sector and recommend ways of improving the implementation of the initiative. The study involved 120 teachers from six government secondary schools in Njombe Region, one of the regions of Tanzania. The data were collected using a set of questionnaire and focus group discussions. The quantitative data were analyzed using computer software, Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 18, in which frequencies and percentages of responses on teachers’ perceptions of the implementation of the BRN initiative in Tanzanian education sector were computed. In addition, the qualitative data were analysed using content analysis. The findings indicated that there was lack of understanding of the objectives of the BRN initiative in Tanzanian education sector among the majority of teachers. Moreover, the teachers were not involved in the plans to implement the BRN initiative and conditions in schools were not supportive for the successful implementation of the initiative. On the ways of improving the implementation of the BRN initiative in Tanzanian education sector, teachers recommended, among others, that they should be educated on the objectives of implementing the initiative as they are the cornerstone in making the initiative a success.
Reflections on the implementation of competence based cuurriculum in Tanzanian secondary schools
(2015) Komba, S.C.; Mwandanji, M.
This study investigated issues surrounding the implementation of competence based curriculum in Tanzanian secondary schools. The specific objectives of the study were to examine the teachers’ understanding of the objectives of competence based curriculum; to investigate the teachers’ abilities in preparing competence based lesson plans; to examine whether or not teachers involved students in classroom activities; and to find out whether or not teachers practiced formative students’ assessments as per the requirements of competence based curriculum. The respondents included 186 teachers who were randomly selected from 13 secondary schools found in Mbeya region of Tanzania. The data were collected through interview schedules, observation schedules, and review of documents. The collected data were analysed using thematic content analysis. The findings indicated that the majority (86%) of the interviewed teachers did not have the proper understanding of the objectives of competence based curriculum. In addition, the majority (78%) of the reviewed lesson plans did not reflect the qualities of a competence based lesson plan. Moreover, the involvement of students in classroom activities by the teachers who were observed was, in overall, very low. Lastly, teachers practiced formative students’ assessments in less than 50% of the observed classroom sessions. In view of these findings, it seemed that the implementation of competence based curriculum in the selected schools was ineffective. In view of these findings, it is recommended that regular training for in-service teachers should be conducted in order to enable them acquire up-to-date teaching skills as required by the changes introduced in the school curricula.
Integrating moral and ethical values in the general studies syllabus at advanced level secondary school in Tanzania: challenges and opportunities
(Research Journal of Education, 2015) Kira, Ernest S.; Komba, Sotco C.
This study sought to achieve two specific objectives: First, to examine the challenges of teaching and learning moral and ethical values at advanced level secondary school in Tanzania and, secondly, to recommend ways of improving moral and ethical values among the youth. The study involved 80 students and 12 teachers, randomly selected from 4 secondary schools found in Morogoro Municipality. The data were collected using interviews, focus group discussions and review of curriculum materials. The findings were as follows: First, it was revealed that the teaching of moral and ethical values in schools faced a number of challenges, including lack of role models, inadequate human and material resources, and weaknesses of the content of the syllabus in use. Secondly, the respondents recommended that for the teaching of moral and ethical values to be effective, a tripartite of stakeholders, including teachers, parents, and the general public should work collaboratively. In light of these findings, it is recommended that the entire society and parents in particular, should serve as role models to ensure that children are both morally and ethically upright as they are brought up
Do students’ backgrounds in the language of instruction influence secondary school academic performance?
(2015) Komba, S. C.; Bosco, S.
In Tanzania, two types of primary schools exist, based on the language of instruction used. These are English medium schools and Swahili medium schools. Students who complete their studies from both types of schools join secondary schools where the language of instruction is solely English. This study investigated the influence of students’ backgrounds in the language of instruction on secondary school academic performance. The specific objectives of the study were two: First, to compare form one annual examinations results for students who had used English and those who had used Swahili as the medium of instruction at primary school level and, secondly, to compare the form two national examinations results for students who had used English and those who had used Swahili as the medium of instruction at primary school level. The study involved 524 students from eight secondary schools in Mbeya region. The data were collected through review of documents containing students’ admission lists and examinations results. The analysis of the collected data was done using computer software, Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 18, in which an independent samples t-test was conducted to test the hypotheses advanced for this study. The findings were as follows: First, students whose medium of instruction at primary school level was English, performed better in form one annual examinations than their counterparts who had used Swahili and the difference was statistically significant at p<0.05, in a twotailed test. Secondly, students who had used English as the medium of instruction at primary school level, performed better in form two national examinations than those who had used Swahili and the difference was also statistically significant at p<0.05, in a two-tailed test. It was thus, concluded that the language of instruction used by students at primary school level influenced significantly students’ academic performance at secondary school level.
Investigation of Pupils’ english language abilities in Tanzania: The case of english medium primary schools
(2015-02-14) Komba, S. C.; John, D.
This article is based on the study which sought to assess pupils’ abilities in written English language skills among English medium primary school pupils in Tanzania. The objectives of the study were to examine pupils’ abilities in constructing complete and meaningful sentences; to investigate pupils’ abilities in using tenses; to assess pupils’ abilities in using punctuation marks; and to examine pupils’ abilities in spelling words. The respondents were 240 pupils from four English medium primary schools, based in Mbeya and Dar es Salaam Cities. The data collection process was done using an achievement test and the collected data were subjected to item analysis in which frequencies and percentages of students exhibiting the specified abilities were computed. The findings indicated that the majority of the pupils had serious problems in the tested English language abilities. It was recommended, among others, that English medium primary schools should recruit teachers who are proficient in English language so that they could serve as role models to the pupils.
The role of input simplification and interactional modification strategies in the Tanzanian english-language classroom
(ResearchGate, 2016) Utenga, Adriano; Mohamed, Hashim Issa; Nyinondi, Onesmo Simon; Mhandeni, Abdulkarim Shaban
This paper presents a classroom-based research on input simplification and interactional modification strategies used by English language teachers to make their oral input comprehensible to their learners. The main objective was to examine the input simplification and interactional modification strategies used by English language teachers in EFL classrooms, focusing on lexical and syntactical aspects of the language. Data were collected from four English language teachers and 183 students from four selected classrooms and a review of English language syllabi in Tanzania. The study was carried out by means of audio recordings, classroom observations and interviews.The findings show that teachers employ different linguistic simplifications and interactional modification strategies in EFL classrooms to enhance students‟ comprehension and interlanguage development. The findings further revealed that the use of input simplification and interactional modification strategies is crucial for students‟ comprehension and language development. A combination of factors - personal style of teaching, lesson content, methodology, students‟ proficiency level and linguistic background - was found to influence foreigner talk(FT) strategies. In the present paper, it is recommended that linguistic simplifications and interactional modification strategies in EFL classrooms be systematically used and streamlined in the methodology of teaching EFL. The authors also recommend that the knowledge of native speakers' (NS) / non native Speakers' (NNS) discourse for various contexts, tasks and addressees need to be explored to establish triggers of FT, and then discover which discourse modifications, if any, actually facilitate foreign language learning.

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