Higher Education Students’ Reflections on Learning in Times of Academic Language Shift

This article deals with the current debate on the use of English as the only medium of instruction in contexts where it is a second or foreign language. More specifically, it investigates Rwandan students’ reflections on using English as the sole medium of instruction in their everyday higher education academic activities. The study is mainly based on individual interviews from students at a University in Rwanda, where the language in education policy has changed considerably over the last decade. The findings suggest that students face different challenges and difficulties in using the newly adopted language of learning and teaching. They are, however, aware of the globalisation process and dissolution of national boundaries and are willing to upgrade their English in order to cope with the new academic situation

Towards English for academic purposes in the Rwandan context: The case of the first year of the Management Faculty

Magister Educationis - MEdThis study investigates the extent to which the one-year English course that the National University of Rwanda offers equips Francophone students with the linguistic tools they need in order to cope with content subjects offered through the medium of English. It argues that learning English in this context should go beyond foreign language learning to learning English for Academic Purposes, and beyond language learning to the understanding of content subjects. For the purposes of this study, the focus fell on students in the Management Faculty

Case studies on the effectiveness of capacity strengthening activities of the science granting councils initiative in Sub-Saharan Africa

The Science Granting Councils are at various stages in developing and implementing components of their science systems; for example, through deployment of learnings from the Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI) on public-private partnerships, and use of science, technology and innovation (STI) indicators in development and implementation of programmes. This report provides examples of how the SGCI has been effective and influential in context-dependent ways in the study countries. Findings suggest that all SGCs surveyed have been able to engage with, benefit from, and implement at least some of the trainings received by SGCI

Coping with Learning through a Foreign Language in Higher Education in Rwanda

The overarching aims of this thesis are to investigate how students in higher education in Rwanda experience learning through the medium of a foreign language, mainly English, and the strategies they employ in order to successfully complete their university studies during a period of both language and educational change. Taking a sociocultural perspective, the thesis subscribes to a qualitative research design. Interviews were used in order to gain in-depth understanding of how higher education students reflect on, handle and cope with learning through a foreign language. Video and audio recorded interactions of students’ formal and informal group discussions were used to capture some of the seen but unnoticed linguistic and communicative details that might be of interest in shedding light on aspects related to learning in a foreign language. Four empirical studies show that students face different challenges in using the newly adopted language of learning and teaching. They are, however, aware of the fact that the globalisation process and dissolution of national boundaries may create new opportunities and are therefore willing to upgrade their English in order to cope with the new academic situation. Findings show that active use of multiple languages, although time consuming, has great potential to facilitate learning, thus emphasizing the complementarities rather than the exclusion of languages used in Rwanda. Also, teacher and student initiated group discussions have the potential to promote knowledge construction in content subjects as students afford a context for confident participation. Although the mother tongue is not officially recognised as language of instruction in higher education, it plays a mediating role for the negotiation of meaning of domain specific content through responsible code switching and translanguaging.Det övergripande syftet för denna avhandling är att undersöka hur studenter inom högre utbildning i Rwanda erfar att lära på ett främmande språk, i huvudsak engelska, och vilka strategier de använder sig av för att lyckas genomföra sina universitetsstudier i en tid av förändring av både undervisningsspråk och undervisningen i sig. Avhandlingen tar sin utgångspunkt i ett sociokulturellt perspektiv och en kvalitativ forskningsdesign. Intervjuer genomfördes för att få fördjupad förståelse för hur studenterna reflekterar över och hanterar problemet med att lära på ett främmande språk. Video- och audioinspelade interaktioner av studenternas formella och informella gruppdiskussioner användes för att fånga och analysera språkliga och kommunikativa detaljer som förekommer men ofta förbises eller tas för givna. Fyra empiriska studier visar att studenterna möter olika utmaningar när de måste använda ett nyligen introducerat främmande språk i undervisningen och i olika lärandesituationer. De är emellertid medvetna om att globalisering och upplösning av nationella gränser kan skapa nya möjligheter och är därför villiga att förbättra sin engelska för att kunna klara av den nya undervisningssituationen. Analyserna visar också att aktiv användning av en mångfald av språk, även om det är tidsödande, har stor potential att underlätta lärande och på så sätt betonas den komplementerande snarare än den exkluderande synen på språkanvändning i Rwanda. Dessutom visar det sig att diskussioner i grupp initierade av både lärare och studenter har en potential att stödja konstruktionen av kunskap inom akademiska ämnen eftersom studenterna skapar en tillitsfull miljö där de är trygga att delta. Studierna visar också att trots att modersmålet inte är officiellt erkänt som undervisningsspråk spelar det en medierande roll i framförhandlandet av innehållet inom olika ämnesområden genom olika former av gränsöverskridande språkande där alla språk som studenterna har tillgång till används

Coping with English as Language of Instruction in Higher Education in Rwanda

The present study examines strategies that multilingual university students in Rwanda use in order to successfully deal with complex academic material offered through the medium of English, a foreign language. The reported strategies emerged from group work discussions and interviews with students in the faculty of Economics and Management at a University in Rwanda. The data were analyzed thematically. Findings reveal that students have multiple coping strategies that enable them to complete academic tasks given through the medium of English. One of the prominent strategies and practices is the successful use of other languages at their disposal to mediate cognitively demanding academic tasks. Although other spoken languages are not officially recognised as media of instruction in higher education, they play a mediating role in content learning through responsible code switching and translanguaging