The Attitudes of Anglophone and Francophone Cameroonians towards Cameroon English as a Model of English Language Teaching and Learning in Cameroon

Abstract

Teachers of English in Cameroon are proficient speakers of Cameroon English and their non-native status militates against their usage of Standard British English in the English language classrooms. This makes the attainment of British English thorny and perhaps impossible in Cameroon. Standing on that premise, we were motivated to find out Cameroonians’ attitudes towards Cameroon English as a model of English language teaching and learning in the country. Eighty (80) post graduate Cameroonian users of English (40 Anglophones and 40 Francophones) were randomly in the Departments of English both in the University of Yaounde I and the Higher Teacher Training College Yaounde. A four-Likert scale questionnaire comprising 27 questions was designed for the informants to indicate their agreement or disagreement with them. The findings revealed that attitudes towards CamE as a variety that must serve as a model in the English Language Teaching (ELT) industry are varied. While the majority of Anglophone informants had a positive attitude towards Cameroon English as a model of English language teaching and a relative negative attitude towards Standard British English, the majority of Francophone informants rather had a negative attitude towards CamE and a very favourable attirude towards Standard British English.

Keywords: Attitude, Anglophone, Francophone, Cameroon English, English Language Teaching