Abstract: This study focused on the extent of use of English language in school hostels and its link with the students' English language performance, in ward public secondary schools in rural Tanzania. The motivation for the study was the realisation that the medium of instruction in secondary school is English, but students in the rural schools might have limited exposure to practicing the English language outside of school. School hostels offer a social setting in which children meet with other children and may have the chance to practise the language again. The study was guided by Bandura's Social Learning Theory which highlights how people learn through observation, imitation, interaction, modelling and reinforcement. Mixed method with convergent design was used. Structured questionnaires were used to gather quantitative data and semi-structured interviews were used to gather qualitative data. Frequencies, percentages, and means were used for quantitative data analysis and themes were used for qualitative data analysis. The key findings indicated that the English language use in the hostel had an impact on students' vocabulary acquisition, confidence and speaking practice, interaction with peers, and English language performance. But English was not always used when students were interacting in the hostel, as they often used Kiswahili, and fear of making mistakes restricted participation. The study found that the school hostel can be used as an informal learning environment to complement the learning of English in the classroom, provided that the use of English is always promoted and assisted. The study suggested that school administration should increase the frequency of English debates, group discussions, student speeches, and student peer learning activities to encourage students to use English, and that the supervisors of the school hostels should give them supportive guidance and encouragement to enhance students' confidence in using English and improve students' ability to use English.
Keywords: English language use practices, school hostels, English language performance, rural secondary schools, Social Learning Theory, Tanzania.
Title: ENGLISH LANGUAGE USE PRACTICES IN SCHOOL HOSTELS AND STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LANGUAGE PERFORMANCE IN WARD PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN RURAL TANZANIA
Author: Felix Francis Nyaulingo, Francis Magingo, Onesmo Amos Damka
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
Vol. 14, Issue 4, October 2026 - December 2026
Page No: 98-103
Research Publish Journals
Website: www.researchpublish.com
Published Date: 14-October-2026
