Pretence, Honesty or Reality; Exploring the Perplexity of English Language Teaching in Cameroon

Abstract

The exodus of the English language from its aboriginal harbour to settler nations and to Kachru’s expanding circle, has placed the language in an unprecedented position causing a plethora of linguistic phenomena in the 21^st century. The Cameroonian maxim that the country is Africa in miniature is also justifiable from its linguistic landscape that was spiced by the settlement of English language in the territory in the 18^th century. The country is now not only inundated by the more than 250 native languages but equally by a number of Englishes that find expression within the context. This has resulted in a fervent jostling for position amongst users of English in Cameroon. The pedagogues find themselves in a hotchpotch of confusion and miasma on the variety to use and to teach. This disarray is further compounded by the ferocious competition between varieties placing the pedagogue in a quandary of three behaviours either as pretence, honesty or reality. In this linguistic quagmire, the centre seems not to hold again and pedagogues consciously or not resort to what I term ‘linguistic hypocrisy’. This paper traces the dilemma of the English language teacher who pedagogically is living a double-edged life; one that is ‘English English’ and another that is ‘Cameroonian English’.  Data is collected through empirical review of secondary data as well as discussions with English Language teachers in secondary schools and further analysed using qualitative approaches. Findings reveal that English language teachers live a linguistic pretentious life with three behaviours which have compelling implications on their identity and on the English language teaching industry in Cameroon that is replete with perplexities ranging from intra to extra linguistic domains.