[lg policy] The Politics of Pidgin English in Cameroon

[Anthea Fraser Gupta]

This article is going well until we get to the end. Though, of course, Cameroon Pidgin is politicised in a similar way to contact varieties the world over (Morisyen, Singlish, Patwa, NPE ......).

But......
"I will like to emphasize that my conclusion in no way ignores the real issue of falling English standards in Cameroon. However, rather than blaming Pidgin or any other language for these declining standards, we should turn to the educational system itself with its poorly-trained teachers and outdated language teaching methods which have barely changed since the 1960s. Once we factor in the nefarious influence of the dominant Francophone culture and its ubiquitous French language, then it becomes obvious why English standards are going down the drain"

I wonder what evidence there is for a decline in the standard of English? This is a trope that you hear everywhere and it is almost never true (has anyone got a verifiable example?). Now it MIGHT be true in Cameroon but is there evidence?

Anthea
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Anthea Fraser Gupta (Dr)
School of English, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT
<www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg<http://www.leeds.ac.uk/english/staff/afg>>
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