[lg policy] The Politics of Pidgin English in Cameroon

[Annette Islei]

It could well be true if they have introduced universal Primary
education and overstretched an overstretched system.

And in a macroacquisition situation, with more and more kids gaining
some competence in English, English will more rapidly become different
from the British English or whatever target model. This isn't just
deficit/difference thinking, it's also communicative ability.

When people look back to the good old days, they are forgetting this
was relatvely exclusive education with teachers colonial trained.

UPE in Uganda - class size went up from a 'manageable' 80 to over a
120, and literacy results fell.

Annette Islei

2010/1/18 Anthea Fraser Gupta <A.F.Gupta at leeds.ac.uk>:
> 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for these declining standards, we should turn to the educational system itself with its poorly-trained teachers and outdated language teaching methods which have barely changed since the 1960s.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
> *     *     *     *     *
> 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>>
> *     *     *     *     *
>
> _______________________________________________
> This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
> lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
> To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list
>

_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list