The Fallacy of Promoting Non Native Varieties of English in Postcolonial Multilingual Settings: The Case of Cameroon English (CamE) in Cameroon

Abstract

This research endeavour is a major contribution to the current debate on the integration of non-native varieties into the school curriculum in non-native settings. Taking the specific case of Cameroon, this work rests on the solid assumption that the promotion of CamE to the detriment of Standard British English accent is definitely a fallacy. The researcher is of the opinion that the ELT pedagogy based on the local variety of English advocated by Cameroonian scholars and researchers cannot bare fruits as Cameroonian professional users of English did not received any training on how to teach CamE; there are no pedagogic materials so far that clearly outline an approach to CamE grammar, vocabulary, morphology instruction, most of the so-called CamE characteristic features are errors and seem not to reflect the sociocultural realities of the entire country but of the Anglophone Cameroon represented by 20% in the Cameroonian landscape. Above all, decision makers on language use in Cameroon and learners prefer native varieties of English like Standard British English and American English as well as other varieties of English spoken in the Cameroonian setting to the detriment of CamE.

Keywords: Cameroon, Cameroon English, ELT, Sociolinguistic realities, Varieties of English