English-medium instruction in an English–French bilingual setting: issues of quality and equity in Cameroon

ABSTRACT

Despite its multilingual nature Cameroon’s educational system provides for full immersion into either French-medium or English-medium education from the first year schooling. Following political tensions in the early 1990s the country decided to reaffirm its commitment to promote bilingualism in the educational system with the outcome being the implementation of various forms of bilingual education models across the country, including, in recent years, a dramatic rise in the number of children from ‘Francophone’ homes enrolling in English-medium schools. This paper examines this rising interest in English-medium instruction (EMI) in a country where French is still the language of political power and administration and where there is still very little evidence that even ‘Anglophone’ children sufficiently benefit from EMI. Drawing from an analysis of data collected from school children, parents, teachers and a school inspector, this article reveals existing complexities, challenges and possibilities arising from the current trend and presents a holistic picture of the realities of EMI in this immensely multilingual country.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingual
• multilingual
• immersion
• quality
• equity
• socio-economic
• English medium instruction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributors

Kuchah Kuchah is a Lecturer in TESOL at the Department of Education, University of Bath, UK. Previously, he worked in the field of English language education for 16 years as a teacher, teacher trainer, and policy-maker in Cameroon and later, as a teaching fellow in applied linguistics at the Universities of Warwick and Sheffield in the UK. His research interests include teaching English to young learners, context-appropriate ELT methodology, teaching large and multi-grade classes and English language teacher development.

ORCiD

Kuchah Kuchah http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7480-5774

Notes

1 With a total population of 22.77 million in 2014 (World Bank 2016) representing approximately 2% of Africa’s total population, Cameroon has a diverse and multilingual population with 286 local languages (Ethnologue 2009) representing 13.5% of Africa’s total languages and possibly the highest population-languages ratio in Africa. Three of the four main linguistic phyla of Africa are represented in Cameroon: Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan and Niger-Kordofanian (of which Niger-Congo is the largest family). Only the Khoisan phylum is absent. (Ethnologue 2009).

2 Cameroon is officially known as a bilingual country because of its two official languages (French and English) rather than in reference to its many home languages.

3 The end of primary education in Cameroon is sanctioned by two types of exams, the Common Entrance Examination into secondary schools (‘Concours d’entrée en sixième’ in the Francophone sub-system) and the First School Leaving Certificate (‘Brevet d’etudes Primaires’ in the Francophone sub-system). Because both sets of examinations take place on the same days in both Francophone and Anglophone schools, it is not possible for children in the ‘dual immersion’ schools to sit both. They have to either sit for the Anglophone or Francophone exams depending on which of the two sub-systems of education they will pursue beyond primary education.

4 Cameroon is made up of 10 administrative regions (formally called provinces) eight of which are Francophone owing to their being a French colonial protectorate after the defeat of Germany in 1919 and two of which are Anglophone originally known as British Southern Cameroons. Historically, the term ‘Francophone’ and ‘Anglophone’ were used to refer to Cameroonians from the former French (East Cameroun) and British (Southern Cameroons) protectorates, respectively. More recently, these terms are increasingly being used in relation to those who pursue French and English medium education, respectively (Simo-Bobda 2001).

5 Alongside the official linguistic difference between Anglophonism and Francophonism is a strong sense in which people see themselves as culturally Anglophone or Francophone. It is therefore usual to hear people talk about their culture in relation to these official languages, rather than to their native languages and cultures.

6 UNESCO institute of statistics figures show that in 2012 the average number of pupils per reading and mathematics textbook in Cameroon was 12 and 13.9, respectively.