Upgrading Students communication competence:Refrections from Universities in Tanzania
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Date
2022
Authors
Mwakapina, Job W
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
SUA
Abstract
In many countries, including Tanzania, Communication Skills (CSs) courses have been taught for many years to help students improve their ability to communicate in English while doing academic activities at college/university. However, in such countries, there are complaints that the courses do not bear the expected results because many students still manifest deficiencies in communication even after having undergone the training. Based on this, this chapter assesses the contribution of a CSs course in upgrading tertiary students’ communicative competence by reflecting on universities in Tanzania. The chapter in the discussion of the contribution adopts Daniel Stufflebeam’s Context, Input, Process and Product (CIPP) evaluation model. The chapter indicates that the CSs course taught in the selected universities is effective, but not very effective because of negative factors, which prevail during the conduct of the course. These negative factors are such as large-class size, instructors’ heavy teaching load, low students’ autonomous learning, low motivation, students’ failure to transfer the skills, lack of enough practices, learning English in the Kiswahili context, low English Language Proficiency (ELP), and minimal use of English language in the university business or environment, to mention a few. The chapter concludes that the course is not very effective in producing desired results in upgrading students’ CSs mainly because of the negative factors. Therefore, addressing these negative factors will make the course accentuate more positive results in enhancing or upgrading students’ communicative competence.
Description
Book Chapter
Keywords
Communication Skills, Evaluation, Communicative Competence, Study Skills