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SUMMARY:Francophone and Anglophone Primary school teachers’ representati
 ons of language and linguistic policies in Cameroon - Edith Esch \, Senior
  Research Fellow in Language Education
DTSTART:20090310T170000Z
DTEND:20090310T180000Z
UID:TALK17386@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ewa Illakowicz
DESCRIPTION:Cameroon is a particularly complex multilingual country in whi
 ch over 230 languages are still being used locally. Yet\, the evolution of
  the linguistic situation is largely shaped by the educational system and 
 the reproduction of language norms. These pay lip-service to the support o
 f the national languages\, and this in spite of the efforts and proposals 
 of  sociolinguists such as Tadadjeu.  The current situation can be describ
 ed as follows in (macro) sociolinguist terms: \n\n Conflicting traditions 
 are apparent and lead to different models of  multilingualism. While the s
 trength of the exocentric norms inherited from the colonial powers (German
 y\, France and Britain) were encapsulated in the policy of official French
 -English Bilingualism after independence\, the policy works against the de
 velopment of the use of national languages in schools and is associated wi
 th a transitional view of multilingualism\, i.e. awareness and maintenance
  of the national languages. The opposite view\, supported by Tadadjeu\, wa
 s to make multilingualism the heart of national integration\, with functio
 nal complementarity between languages\, an argument for an integrative vie
 w of multilingualism. \n\n The present study is situated within the framew
 ork of comparative pedagogy and looks at the picture from a micro-interact
 ional sociolinguistic angle. It sets out to document how these multi-level
  tensions inform primary teachers’ views and in particular the extent to
  which their pedagogical thinking still reflects the colonisers’ influen
 ce sixty years after independence. Teachers’ interviews and observations
  were carried out in two Cameroonian urban primary schools (one Francophon
 e and one Anglophone) between September and  December 2008. In this talk\,
  we will first give the historical background  necessary to understand the
  organisation of the educational system\, then will give an  account of th
 e research design and of  the methodological difficulties inherent in carr
 ying out comparative work. We will then present interview data concerning 
 ‘the home language’\, ‘Pidgin English’ and  ‘bilingualism’.Thi
 s is very much work in progress so interpretations of the data presented a
 re still tentative. \n
LOCATION:Faculty of Education\, 184 Hills Road\, Cambridge CB2 8PQ in room
  GS1
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