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Volume 3 Number 3 March 2017

The Quest for Information Dissemination: Critiquing the Use of the In-House Newsletter to Communicate the Institutions? Mandate among Academic Staff Members at Great Zimbabwe University


Authors: Pepukai Chiwewe
Pages: 28-32
Abstract
This paper seeks to explore the importance of the in-house newsletter at Great Zimbabwe University (GZU) in articulating and managing its vision, mission statement and niche area to its academic staff. The article evaluates the extent to which the GZU newsletter incorporates corporate communication (CC) strategies in promoting its founding vision and/ or niche in the arts, culture and heritage to the academic staff at the university. In order to achieve this objective the paper employs a case study design as the framework for data collection and analysis. The paper also employs documentary analysis as data collection tools. The outcomes of this research proved that GZU to a lesser extent employs the GZU newsletter as part of its CC strategies in promoting its vision, mission and niche area to its internal publics, specifically the academic staff. The effectiveness of the newsletter is compromised by poor distribution to academic staff members and inadequate funding to produce a fully-fledged magazine.

Exploring the Effectiveness of Task Based Language Teaching in the Improvement of Master Level Students? Narrative Writing Skill


Authors: Muhammad Rashid
Pages: 20-27
Abstract
This paper explores the effectiveness of task based language teaching (TBLT) in improving master level students’ narrative writing skill as well as students’ perception of task based language teaching. The sample has been taken in two stages. In the first stage two classrooms of MA English part 1(morning and evening) comprising 122 students have been selected by non-probability sampling technique. In the second stage, 60 students were selected and divided into two groups randomly after they were passed through a structure test adopted from old papers of English of grade 12. The treatment class has been taught for 20 days through task based language teaching. Experimental and control class data were collected through written tests and questionnaires. Written pre and post tests were administered to both classes comprising 60 students. Questionnaires were given to the students in experimental group after each of 12 treatment tasks. Data from written pre and post-test and questionnaires were analysed quantitatively. T-test was run to analyse improvement between the groups. Test results revealed highly significant difference between two groups. The study also demonstrated treatment groups’ general perception of task based language teaching positively. Findings of this study may inspire the teachers to adopt task based language teaching to improve students’ narrative writing as well as other skills.