Cameroon
is said to be an officially French-English bilingual country. This paper
explores the possible benefits of French-English bilingual competence to the
individual working citizen in the country. The data are the returns of a
16-item questionnaire devised to check the possible advantages that working Cameroonian
French-English bilinguals have and that “officially monolingual” workers do not. The informants are some 408
competent French-English bilinguals working in both the public and
private sectors in the city of Yaounde and a few other towns. The findings
revealed that, compared to “officially monolingual” workers, “officially
bilingual” workers have no advantage in entering the labour market, in salary
increase, in being promoted within a job or receiving any distinction in the
work place. The paper establishes that bilingualism has no labour market value
in Cameroon and that this policy is a mere slogan, no one caring about its
implementation. As a result, the bulk of the working force of the nation has
remained officially monolingual over the years. With the advent of
globalisation, there is a reversal of the situation. Francophone parents have understood
that English language skills are likely to give their children a critical
advantage in the global marketplace. To prepare for it, a greater number of urban
francophone parents are registering their children in English-medium schools
where these children acquire formal English in the classroom and oral/informal
French around school premises and in the neighbourhood.
Cite this paper
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