Scrutinizing Communication Gaps Bridging Efforts by Universities’ Language Centers in Rwanda: The Case of AUCA, UTB and UNILAK
Communication has always been a tool everyone needs to successfully accomplish their mission. This study aimed at assessing the efforts invested by universities in Rwanda through their language centers in bridging communication gaps. The specific objectives of the study were to find out the languages taught by universities’ language centers in Rwanda, to indicate the rate at which languages are taught by centers and to suggest how possible communication constraints among students can be addressed. Moreover, three questions were asked to try to meet the aforementioned objectives: which languages are taught by universities’ language centers in Rwanda? to what extent are the languages taught by universities’ language centers? which solutions can adequately address the problems hindering communication among students? Indeed, the main problem that triggered the researcher to embark on this study is that no single research study has ever been conducted to find out ways of narrowing communication gaps among university students in Rwanda through language centers. Furthermore, a questionnaire, interview, documentation, and observation were used as techniques of data collection. The findings revealed that language centers play an important role in bridging communication gaps among students but with more efforts needed to satisfactorily meet this goal since the respondents confirmed that only English is taught at a greater percentage (85.1%). There is a need therefore to reinforce the teaching by introducing more languages. The study recommended that university centers in Rwanda introduce more languages to better close existing communication gaps.
Keywords: Communication, socialization, message decoding, multilingualism, and lingua franca.
