Prospect on the indigenisation of educational curriculum: What place for foreign languages and national languages (Fulfulde) in education in the Far North region of Cameroon?

Linguistics

This study does not address the case of official languages (French and English) but that of other foreign languages in education. It seeks to discuss university students’ opinion regarding the place and importance of foreign languages, in concurrence with national languages, in the school curriculum in the Francophone system of education. This study explores populations’ evaluation of the relevance of foreign languages in education, as well as their opinion about the possible replacement with Fulfulde, a lingua franca of the Northern regions of Cameroon. The data were collected using a quantitative approach utilizing a questionnaire administered to 525 informants, all residing in the Far regions of Cameroon. They originated from the three northern regions but the majority (90%) are native of the Far North. The multiple-choice questions (with 5 scale ranging from absolutely agree to absolutely disagree) aimed at eliciting the opinion of the respondents regarding the reformation of the LIEP by supressing the prevalence of foreign language over national languages, while upgrading the status of the latter in the secondary schools. The findings reveal an attitude inclined in favour of foreign languages as the perspective of the substitution of foreign languages by Fulfulde as subject is not opted for. Foreign languages are perceived as being important. As a result, their presence in the Francophone education curriculum is seen as relevant and pertinent. Logically, it is suggested that their teaching be extended to the Anglophone system of education. As instrumentality in social mobility, German is highly rated among foreign languages, and Italian is underrated. English and French are perceived as being more important that these foreign languages. Fulfulde is not perceived as relevant enough to replace FLs in education, however, national languages are seen as deserving a place in the school system. The implications of this study are double-fold. While it is clear that although Fulfulde has an undisputable place as language of wider communication in the Far North region, and is used informally in administration, it is not yet certain that the population will accept it as a replacement of FLs in the educational curriculum in the Far North region. Therefore, education policy makers will have to carry out some attitude engineering campaign in order to change the popular mind-set that support a language ideology more favourable to Western languages.

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