Impact of language barrier on communication among selected International Students and Third Year Law students at Makerere University

Abstract

The study aimed at assessing the impact of language barrier among selected students in third year at the Collage of Humanities and Social Sciences and the School of Law. The specific objectives of the study included establishing the different examples of language barrier, the causes of language barrier among International students and third year Law School students at Makerere University and the impact of language barrier on communication among the seleted students. The research also aimed at providing measures to handle the issues related to language barrier problems among the selected category of students. Questionnaires to assess the impact of language barrier on communication were distributed using the random sampling method. The collected data was analysed using the statistical package for social sciences version 21. The research basically focuses on language barrier and how these impacts on communication not only in the classroom, but also in day to day activities. Language barrier is a problem that is often under looked because of false assumptions for example when, most students assume that as long as they speak the same language, they do not experience language barrier challenges. Language barrier spreads verbal and non-verbal cues, code switching and in the speaking of different dialects among the selected students at Makerere University.