









































Kouam, C.. Global Journal of  
Transformative Education (2024) Vol 4   
pp 31-42 DOI  10.14434/gjte.v4i1.36723

Open Access

Published by the Global Insitutute of Transformative Education (http://www.gite.education)
© Kouam, 2024. Open Access This journal is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 
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English as Foreign Language (EFL) Teaching and Learning in 
Cameroon: Decolonizing Francophone Teachers’ Minds 

Clement Kouam

Abstract
This article makes an argument for Francophone EFL (English as Foreign Language) teachers in Cameroon 

to recover from the ‘Ukolonia’ syndrome (Bokamba, 2011) and to use the indigenised variety of English as the 
model for teaching and learning instead of continuing to target the Standard British English accent. The study 
shows that the attempt to use an Inner Circle accent as a model leads to hypercorrection and limited fluency 
on the part of the learners. On the other hand, the use of the indigenised variety as a model by a few Anglo-
phone EFL teachers results in better proficiency. The arguments are supported by (1) a questionnaire survey 
of 50 Franchophone EFL teachers, (2) classroom observation carried out in ten EFL classes five of which were 
conducted by Anglophone teachers and the other five by Francophones, and (3) the analysis of curriculum 
documents for teacher education. The study is underpinned by Bokamba’s (2011) Ukolonia theory and Kach-
ru’s (1985) World Englishes framework. The paper argues that a decolonization of Francophone EFL teachers’ 
mindset and the replacement of Standard British English by mainstream Cameroon English can enhance the 
EFL teaching/learning process significantly. The findings and the recommendations provided also constitute a 
good material for innovation in EFL teacher education and in classroom practice.

Keywords: Cameroon, Cameroon English, Received pronunciation, EFL teaching/learning

Full listing of authors and contacts can be 
found at the end of this article.

The Sociolinguistic Context of Cameroon
Cameroon is a multilingual country with 273 living 

indigenous languages (Eberhard, Simons, & Fennig, 
2023) and numerous foreign languages, two of which 
(French and English) are colonial legacies inherited 
from the Franco-British colonial rule. Located at the 
intersection between West and Central Africa, the Re-
public of Cameroon is a blend of former East Cameroon 
(French colony from 1916 to 1960) and former West 
Cameroon (British colony from 1916 to 1961). While 
the former has remained essentially Francophone, the 
latter continues to be a dominantly English-speaking 
area. Although Cameroon had for long been a German 
protectorate (1884-1916) before the taking over by 
France and Britain following their victory over Germa-
ny during the First World War, the impact of the Ger-
man language in the country is insignificant as com-
pared to that of French and English. Besides being the 
most important lingua francas for both intranational 
and international communication, they are the only of

ficial languages of the country. In the partitioning of the 
war trophy, Britain obtained one-fifth of the Cameroo-
nian territory composed of two discontinuous strips of 
land along the Nigerian border while France acquired 
the remaining four-fifths (Echu, 2003). 

The two colonial powers adopted different modes 
of administration in their colonies. Interestingly, many 
current developments in English in general and in 
attitudes and pedagogic concerns in particular are still 
a reflection of the colonial systems that were practised. 
For instance, despite the current scramble for English 
in the French-speaking part of Cameroon, Francophone 
EFL (English as Foreign Language) teachers’ attitude 
still clearly shows their preference for the far-fetched 
Standard British English accent to the detriment of 
the more attainable Cameroon English model. Though 
other factors (e.g., variation in curriculum content for 
EFL and ESL teacher education) may come into play in 
accounting for this attitudinal behaviour, the French 
colonial system of indirect rule that attempted to create  
an idealised Europeanised African appears to be one of 
the tangible explanations.

31



Kouam, EFL Teaching & Learning in Cameroon 32

Training and specificities of EFL and ESL  
teachers in Cameroon 

Most Cameroonian teacher training colleges devote 
two series to the training of secondary and high school 
teachers of English, namely the English Modern Letters 
series and the Bilingual Letters series. While the former 
is overwhelmingly dominated by student teachers with 
an Anglophone background, Francophone students 
dominantly constitute the latter. Upon completion, 
graduates from the Bilingual unit are transferred to 
secondary and high schools to teach English and French 
as foreign languages (EFL/FFL). On their part, those 
from the purely English division serve as ESL (English 
as a Second Language) teachers. However, given the 
extremely large number of the Francophone student 
population, some ESL teachers are often solicited for 
the teaching of EFL. 

The observation stage of the study showed that 
while ESL teachers’ efforts are geared towards the 
upgrading of learners’ communicative skills through 
indigenized Cameroon English, most of their Franco-
phone EFL colleagues waste precious time, energy and 
resources targeting near-native English speech appro-
priation by the Francophone learners. Unfortunately, 
their efforts do not yield the expected results as they 
themselves do not master the native accent they want 
the learners to acquire. In other words, Francophone 
EFL teachers jeopardise the EFL teaching and learn-
ing process with hypercorrection, resulting from their 
unattainable goal to sound British or American. This 
paper seeks to explain the strong attachment of Fran-
cophones to native English speech, examine the conse-
quences of this phenomenon on the EFL teaching and 
learning process and suggest solutions to the problem. 

There seems to be a close relationship between 
the colonial modes of administration in the two parts 
of Cameroon and the attitude of English users towards 
English. While the French system of assimilation ex-
posed Francophone Cameroonians to standard French, 
the British policy of indirect rule rather promoted an 
educational policy that deviated Anglophone Camer-
oonians from standard English. This is confirmed by 
Simo Bobda (2004) who equates the British policy to 
“linguistic apartheid’’ and Bokamba (2011) who notes 
that the French, unlike their Belgian, British and Ger-
man counterparts who appeared to be largely circum-
spect regarding their assimilation objectives, were very 
explicitly eloquent, with education as the means par ex-
cellence for achieving them. Thus, the attitude to accent 
in teaching French in Cameroon might have been

transferred to the teaching of EFL. 

Language policy in Cameroon
Although advocacies for linguistic decolonization 

have been receiving favourable echoes in many African 
countries (e.g., Botswana, Burundi and even Nigeria) 
where local languages now have official and other im-
portant statuses (Bokamba, 2011), the language policy 
in Cameroon is still geared towards the sole promotion 
of colonially inherited languages. The current language 
policy itself tends to be, to a great extent, a reproduc-
tion of colonial practices.

 
Language policies in the colonial era

The correlation between the language policy that 
held sway in East Cameroon during the colonial peri-
od and the yearning for the native English accent by 
Francophone teachers of English in Cameroon is obvi-
ous. This myth of the native speaker dates back to the 
French colonial period where the policy of assimilation 
prepared the indigenous people to target the colonial 
master’s speech model. This contrasted significantly 
with the system of indirect rule applied by Britain in its 
colonies, former West Cameroon included. 

The aim of the French policy was to replace the 
indigenous languages, cultures and civilization with the 
French one. Echu (2003) reports that barely one year 
after taking over Cameroon from the Germans, France 
instituted a special subvention for schools that used 
French as the language of instruction and those that 
taught in indigenous languages were closed. Thus, 47 
schools opened by Sultan Njoya in the Bamun region 
were all closed down and his printing press destroyed. 
Many other schools (e.g., those run by the American 
Presbyterian missionaries, and in which Bulu was the 
language of instruction later suffered the same fate 
(Echu, 2003, 36). This policy quickly paved the way to 
the creation of many French-medium schools before 
independence (e.g., Lycée Leclerc, Lycée Joss Douala 
and Lycée Manengouba Nkongsamba). The French and 
trained Cameroonians ran such schools to acquire a 
native-like command of the French language. Look-
ing at the drastic nature of the measures undertaken 
to promote the French model of education, one can 
logically suspect that such actions were aimed to serve 
a hidden agenda. It won’t therefore be an exaggeration 
to conclude with Bokamba (2011) that the colonial cul-
ture assimilatory or brainwashing objectives were well 
elaborated and “touched on the means to achieve more 
important and fundamental objectives: Cheap African

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2024) Vol 4



Kouam, EFL Teaching & Learning in Cameroon 33

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2024) Vol 4

labor and other economic benefits for France.” 
On their own, the British governed through Cam-

eroonian traditional authorities. The use of indigenous 
languages (Bafut, Duala, Kenyang, Mungaka, etc.) as lan-
guages of instruction was a common phenomenon. Pid-
gin English, rather than Standard English, was promot-
ed alongside these local languages (Echu, 2003). For 
Simo Bobda (2004), the British seem to have thought 
that Pidgin English was more suitable for Africans than 
standard English and at the same time a way to keep 
Africans away from their privacy. Kachru (1986) con-
firms this, noting that the acquisition by Africans of 
native-like proficiency in English made them suspect. 
Looking at the two colonial systems, it readily ensues 
that Francophones, through the system of assimilation, 
were moulded to look up to the native speech model, 
contrary to Anglophones who were trained to prioritise 
the communicative value of English rather than to long 
for Standard British English.

The language policy in postcolonial Cameroon
French became the official language in 

French-speaking Cameroon upon independence in 
1960 and English enjoyed the same status in the En-
glish-speaking area following its independence in 1961. 
At reunification on 1 October, 1961, official bilingualism 
was instituted in the new federal republic. Cameroon, 
like many other former African colonies, obviously 
opted for this foreign language option in order to avoid 
a language conflict arising from the choice of an in-
digenous language on the one hand and the financial 
and material cost on the other (Bokamba, 2007; Echu, 
2003). To promote the official bilingualism policy, the 
government made the teaching of English and French 
compulsory in the two subsystems of education inher-
ited from colonisation. Since then, French has mainly 
been operating as a foreign language in the Anglophone 
subsystem. English has also been enjoying the same 
privilege in the Francophone subsystem. The following 
excerpt from the Constitution of 18 January 1996 better 
captures the current language policy in Cameroon. 

The official languages of the Republic of Cameroon 
shall be English and French, both languages hav-
ing the same status. The State shall guarantee the 
promotion of bilingualism throughout the country. 
It shall endeavour to protect and promote national 
languages. (Article 1, paragraph 3)
Despite constitutional provisions which make clear 

that French and English have the same status and con-
stitute the backbone of the country’s language policy,

it is obvious that French remains the main official 
language. The numerical advantage of French-speaking 
Cameroon (eight regions out of ten and seventy-five 
percent of the national population) favours this situa-
tion which has caused a lot of harm to national unity. 
Anglophones have long complained about linguistic 
marginalization and the posting of Francophone mono-
lingual administrators, magistrate and teachers to 
their regions is often cited as one of the main reasons 
accounting for the Anglophone Crisis which has been 
going on since 2016. Hopefully, the new trend consist-
ing of Francophones rushing for English is likely to 
reduce French dominance over English in the future in 
both public and social spheres. 

As for the hundreds of Cameroonian languages, 
they continue to be relegated to the background even 
though more efforts are now made to promote them 
through formal education. But even here, they compete 
with other imported languages such as Spanish, Ger-
man, Chinese, Russian, Italian and even the fading Latin. 
Also, even though it is not uncommon for public work-
ers to speak their local language with collaborators or 
users of the same linguistic community, this practice 
is frequently denounced, and its promoters accused 
either of tribalism or of taking the administration 
hostage to the benefit of their village people. Bokamba 
(2011) warns against such a neglect of local languages 
in favour of policies that privilege the colonial master’s 
language, observing that

If Africa is to reclaim its destiny and emerge from 
its “downward spiral” of missteps and misfortunes 
of the last fifty years or so, the utilization of key 
African languages in public domains represents 
not only a major rectification in the development 
trajectory, but also invaluable tools towards its ad-
vancement. The time to engage this process is now, 
and we, Africans alone, are its captains and naviga-
tors. As argued in Bokamba (2007), if the Ukolonia 
behavior discussed here, which is a curable syn-
drome via civic/cultural education, is not reversed, 
Africa will suffer a deeper level of marginaliza-
tion, and it will certainly be trampled over by the 
ever-encroaching globalization of English, French, 
and Portuguese through multinational companies 
that are aggressively seeking unfettered access to 
African natural resources. (pp. 162-163)
Indeed, English as a global language has penetrat-

ed Cameroon so profoundly that Francophones are 
increasingly neglecting local languages in favour of 
English. As a result, more and more kids grow up in the



Kouam, EFL Teaching & Learning in Cameroon 34

French part of the country without the knowledge of 
their mother tongues.

English in Francophone Cameroon
It was not until the early 1990s that Francophones 

started developing real interest for English, the lan-
guage that had become the first international language 
and the language of business and professional opportu-
nities. Mbangwana (2004) depicts the unprecedented 
rush of French-speaking Cameroonians for English in 
the following terms: 

Francophones who never bothered learning En-
glish through the bilingual training programme 
in the university, which was free of charge, start-
ed looking for money after graduating from uni-
versities to register for language courses, wheth-
er they were private language institutes such as 
the B & K Language Institute, British Council, or 
the American Cultural Center. All of these efforts 
were for acquiring the language that served like 
a passport to study or work abroad around the 
world. (p. 25)

The passion of Francophone Cameroonians for 
English has led to a situation where they are now mas-
sively represented in EFL teaching in secondary edu-
cation nationwide. This zeal for the language has even 
led to the emergence of a new variety of English known 
as Cameroon Francophone English and abbreviated as 
CamFE (Atechi, 2015; Ngefac, 2022; Safotso, 2018; Simo 
Bobda, 2013). Due to this new brand, the label Camer-
oon Anglophone English (CamAE) is now supplanting 
that of Cameroon English (CamE) in referring to the 
English of Anglophone Cameroonians. Although CamFE 
still necessitates an in-deph linguistic description, it 
is fast gaining ground. The exceptionally rapid growth 
of Cameroon Francophone English (which is normally 
an EFL variety) is also due to its proximity and even 
its co-existence with Cameroon Anglophone English 
(which is an ESL variety).

The place of CamFE and CamAE within  
English-speaking communities

English-speaking communities across the world 
obey to specific classifications. Crystal (2003) distin-
guishes between ENL (English as a Native Language), 
ESL (English as a Second Language) and EFL (English 
as a Foreign Language) communities. Kachru (1985) 
introduces the terminologies Inner Circle, Outer Circle 
and Expanding Circle in the place of ENL, ESL and EFL, 

respectively. Kachru’s classification pays close atten-
tion to the types of spread, the patterns of acquisition 
and the functional domains in which English is used 
across cultures. It highlights, for instance, the difference 
between traditional native speakers (found in coun-
tries which represent the traditional seats of English) 
and the functional native speakers (who are those that 
speak English as from birth in Outer Circle countries). 
However, both classifications share significant similar-
ities. 

Crystal and Kachru both present the first com-
munity (ENL community/ Inner Circle) as including 
settings where English is mostly used as mother tongue 
and unique language by the population. Such coun-
tries comprise the United Kingdom, the United States 
of America, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The 
Second group (ESL countries/ Outer Circle) includes 
former British colonies. In this circle, English enjoys a 
prestigious status because it is generally one of the offi-
cial languages if not the only one. It occupies a prepon-
derant position among the two or numerous languages 
which make the speakers’ linguistic repertoire. Here, 
English often exists alongside many other languages 
and is significantly indigenised. It is generally assigned 
a very high status (official or co-official language). It 
is used as a medium of instruction and a language of 
administration. Countries which belong to this circle 
include Anglophone Cameroon, Nigeria, India, Malaysia, 
Singapore, Ghana, Kenya, Hawaii and South Africa. The 
third group (EFL countries/Expanding Circle) includes 
the rest of the English-speaking world. In this circle, En-
glish is used mainly for international communication. In 
such contexts, the English language is simply a subject 
in the curriculum and is used only for specific purposes. 
Francophone Cameroon, France, South Korea, China, 
Tunisia, Egypt, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Russia are 
some of the countries which belong to the Expanding 
Circle. 

Francophone Cameroonians’ attitudes towards 
Cameroon English

In spite of the fact that Francophone Cameroonians 
are now passionate about the English language and 
the English subsystem of education, they prefer native 
Englishes, especially British English, and reject indi-
genised CamE which they view as’pidginized.” However, 
research has shown that targeting native English in 
Cameroon is unattainable. Kouam (2022) shows that 
the attempt by Franchophone Cameroonians to articu-
late native English features only results in hypercorrec

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2024) Vol 4



Kouam, EFL Teaching & Learning in Cameroon 35

tion, defined by Labov (1966) as the tendency whereby 
speakers strive to articulate standard linguistic fea-
tures, but end up producing features that are neither 
those of the standard variety they are targeting nor 
those of the mainstream variety spoken by members of 
their speech community and which they were trying to 
avoid. This phenomenon seems to be greatly compro-
mising ELT efforts in the country’s EFL context. While 
postcolonial theorists such as Wa Thiongo (1986) and 
Bolton, Kachru, Kachry, and Nelson (2006) advocate 
linguistic decolonization and a pronounced preference 
of indigenous African languages in education to en-
able the Africanisation of the educational industry, it is 
difficult to understand the preference of Francophone 
Cameroonians for native English models and the rejec-
tion of the indigenised accent which has the advantage 
of portraying the identity of the postcolonial user to a 
great extent. This attitude is a clear indication that the 
French colonial system of assimilation still holds sway 
in the minds of Francophone Cameroonians. It totally 
contradicts the aspirations formulated in decoloniza-
tion voices. 

For Bolton, Kachru, Kachry, & Nelson (2006, 230), 
learners should “target pronunciation which is easier 
to learn because it is more attuned to the phonology of 
their mother tongues, without forfeiting intelligibility,” 
instead of struggling to produce the mannerisms of 
an idealised native speaker of English. These scholars 
encourage the promotion of pronunciation models with 
which speakers of the New Englishes are familiar and 
which are attained through formal education to ensure 
international intelligibility. Bolton, Kachru, Kachry, and 
Nelson (2006) corroborate Kramsch’s (1999) recom-
mendation that each variety of English must cater for 
both intranational and international communication. 
In the same connection, Firth (1964) recommends that 
second language learners of English be equipped with 
the educated variety of their local accents. He views 
“educated English” as follows:

By educated English we must not understand 
Standard English. Educated English shows a wide 
range of permissible variations. Speakers of this 
kind of English do not necessarily submerge all 
signs of social or geographical origin. Their accent 
is often unmistakably local or characteristic of a 
class. Educated English is spoken by all the classes 
of people all over the English-speaking world. This 
is the only kind of English that has the remotest 
chance of universality even in Great Britain itself. 
(Firth, 1964, 196)

The quote above shows that targeting strict Amer-
ican and British accents in postcolonial settings to the 
detriment of the educated varieties of the local English-
es is a futility. Firth’s (1964) view is shared by Achebe 
(1965) who opines that non-native speakers of English 
should passionately espouse their local English models 
and avoid useless emulations of native speech forms. 
He declares: 

So my answer to the question ‘Can an African 
ever learn English well enough to be able to use it 
effectively in creative writing?’ is certainly yes. If on 
the other hand you ask ‘Can he ever learn to use it 
as a native speaker?’ I should say, I hope not. It is 
neither necessary nor desirable for him to be able 
to do so. The price a world language must be pre-
pared to pay is submission to many different kinds 
of use. (Achebe, 1965, 29)

Achebe (1965) thus sees indigenized varieties of 
English as hallmarks of the African identity and as 
varieties which Africans should go for. Unfortunately, 
the myth of the native speaker continues to be present 
and is sometimes encouraged by ELT professionals 
as is the case with Simo Bobda (2004, 25) who points 
out that “the educational and professional survival 
of the ambitious African at the beginning of the third 
millennium still largely depends on how well he or she 
accommodates to Inner Circle Englishes”. He upholds 
that it is a truism that school curricula in Africa must 
seek to promote this accommodation. The Cameroonian 
scenario is perfectly in line with this recommenda-
tion. Ngefac (2011, 40) observes that “in most English 
Language textbooks used for the teaching of English 
in Cameroon, drills on Standard British English accent 
abound and no drills are provided for educated Camer-
oon English pronunciation.” Although the situation has 
improved a little bit now, with more and more literary 
works and a few teaching materials designed based on 
CamE, most current English Language textbooks, if not 
all (e.g., Interactions in English) still reflect Inner Circle 
English norms.

Methodology
Fifty (50) Francophone and five (5) Anglophone 

EFL teachers from ten (10) secondary and high schools 
in three French-speaking regions of Cameroon were 
recruited as participants for this study. They were 
selected among seventy-four EFL teachers who made 
up the EFL teaching staff of the ten schools. The regions 
selected included Centre, Littoral and West. Different

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2024) Vol 4



Kouam, EFL Teaching & Learning in Cameroon 36

research tools were used to collect data. A short ques-
tionnaire was designed to thoroughly identify teachers 
and elicit their claims about the English accent they 
promote for educational practices. It was given to Fran-
cophone EFL teachers exclusively. A survey of the cur-
riculum was also done to check if student teachers from 
both the Bilingual Letters series (future EFL teachers) 
and the English Modern Letters series (prospective ESL 
teachers) are subjected to the same English Language 
courses during their training. The purpose was to sub-
sequently find out if there was any correlation between 
pronunciation choice in the classroom and the content 
of the curriculum that served for their instruction. In 
other words, is there any relationship between pronun-
ciation practice in the ELT classroom and the nature of 
the courses taught at the teacher training school? An 
observation of five EFL classes conducted by Franco-
phone teachers also helped to determine the extent to 
which the pedagogic model practised by Francophone 
EFL teachers reflects their claims in the questionnaire. 
This model was then compared to what obtains in the 
EFL teaching situations conducted by the five selected 
Anglophone teachers.

As concerns theoretical considerations, Bokamba’s 
(2011) Ukolonia theory and Kachru’s (1985) World 
Englishes model are the perspectives from which the 
study was carried out. Bokamba (2011, 161) defines 
Ukolonia as “a psychological syndrome that obfuscates 
the rational thinking of a patient in a postcolonial 
society and causes him/her to evaluate himself/herself 
in terms of values and standards established by the 
former colonial masters’ culture(s)’’. This reflects Fran-
cophone Cameroonians’ attitude towards Cameroon 
English; an attitudinal tendency that clearly reveals the 
internalized colonial mentality that characterizes these 
English users. As for the origin of this slave mentality, 
Bokamba (2011) explains:

Ukolonia resulted from the long-term brainwash-
ing that characterized the explicit or implicit policy 
of assimilation of Africans to Western cultures, 
especially through education, religious practices, 
and administrative practices. Through these agen-
cies, African customs and cultures were viewed as 
inferior to their Western counterparts, and thus 
devalued and stigmatized as “backward”; while, 
in contrast the Western modes of life were valued, 
promoted, and incentivized as worthy of emulation. 
(p. 161)

From the above description, it is clear that Ukolonia 
remains a widespread practice in Cameroon. Even the 
school curricula seem to serve the needs of the West 
more than those of Cameroon. 

Concerning Kachru’s (1985) World Englishes mod-
el, it acknowledges the irreversible indigenisation pro-
cess undergone by English out of its traditional seats, 
and establishes the New Englishes as autonomous vari-
eties with characteristic features. Therefore, it contrasts 
with frameworks such as Error Analysis, which view all 
deviations from traditional native Englishes as errors 
and, consequently, as uninvited guests in any ELT situa-
tion. In this perspective, it is actual communication and 
intelligibility which are the watchwords, and not nec-
essarily how much a speaker can twist their tongue to 
approximate native speech models. Besides, the model 
denounces the monopole that Inner Circle Englishes 
still have in many non-native environments. For Kachru 
(1985), Inner Circle speakers cannot continue to be the 
exclusive norm-setters in a context where the English 
language has transcended many national, international 
and continental boundaries to emerge as a global lingua 
franca. In this development process, Ngefac (2012, 
169) points out, English has significantly embraced the 
contextual realities of postcolonial contexts, due to the 
process of nativisation through which each New English 
setting “has acquired new norms of correctness, which 
very much reflect the twists and turns the language has 
undergone in such contexts”. Many Outer Circle coun-
tries and even some Expanding Circle ones are claiming 
their Englishness, thereby manifesting their wish to 
move from norm-depending to norm providing English 
settings. This can only be made possible through frame-
works such as the present ones.

Data Analysis and Findings
The analysis of the data collected yielded interest-

ing findings.
Representation of Francophones in EFL teaching

One of the issues which need to be surveyed ac-
curately in the EFL teaching sector in Cameroon is 
that of ‘who teaches English as a Foreign Language 
in Cameroon’. The answer to this question is likely to 
shed more light on the speech orientations millions of 
Francophone Cameroonians trained in secondary and 
high schools receive every year. In other words, if EFL 
teachers are mostly Anglophone Cameroonians, the 
learners will obviously tend to be accustomed to Cam-
eroon Anglophone English. On the contrary, if the EFL 
teaching staff is dominated by Francophones as pre-

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2024) Vol 4



Kouam, EFL Teaching & Learning in Cameroon 37

dicted in this study, there is a likelihood that Camer-
oonian learners from the Francophone sub-system of 
education will be adepts of Cameroon Francophone 
English, which also entails that their likelihood to 
exhibit hypercorrection in their English speech will be 
very high. This is because CamFE has been observed to 
be a variety with a great deal of hypercorrect features. 
Not having the means to carry out a large-scale survey 
to determine the exact percentage of Francophone 
EFL teachers serving nationwide, we could, at least, do 
this verification from the ten schools we consulted for 
the investigation. In each EFL Department (common-
ly referred to as Anglais Department), the number of 
teachers was determined. Then a distinction was made 
between those who had a Francophone background and 
those with an Anglophone background. The table below 
provides a picture of the representation of Franco-
phones in the ten EFL departments that were visited.

As shown in Table 1, EFL teachers are mostly Fran-
cophones (up to 67.5% of the EFL teachers that were 
met in the schools that were sampled). The overall 
teaching staff of the ten EFL Departments that were 
visited was made up of seventy-four (74) EFL teach-
ers. Out of this number, up to 50 had a Francophone 
background. While in some departments we could have 
a fair number of Anglophones (e.g., 4 out of 10 teach-
ers met in Government Bilingual High School Obala), 

in others (e.g., Government Technical High School 
Nkometou-Centre where 6 EFL teachers could be 
found), all were Francophones. These figures clearly
denote the predominance of Francophone teachers in 
the teaching of English to Francophone Cameroonians. 
As mentioned earlier, a questionnaire was adminis-
tered exclusively to the fifty Francophone teachers. This 
aimed at eliciting their preferred English accent for ELT.

Francophone EFL teachers preferred English accent
Teachers were expected to choose their 

preferred English accent for educational practic-
es out of the three options that were proposed, 
namely (1) the Standard British English Accent, 
abbreviated as SBE and also known as Received 
Pronunciation or RP, (2) the Cameroon English

(CamE) Accent and (3) a Mixture of SBE and CamE ac-
cents. The table below displays their choices.

Table 2 indicates that up to 38 (76%) of the teach-
ers went for the native accent (Standard British En-
glish). While 9 (18%) were in favour of a mixture of 
native and Cameroon English accents, only 3 (6%) 
showed a preference for the indigenised Cameroon 
English accent. These figures are very indicative of 
Francophone Cameroonians’ very negative attitude 
towards Cameroon Anglophone English and their strong 
attachment to Western speech models. Given that there 
is often a gap between what one prefers and what they 
actually have or do, it was considered suitable to seek 
to know what they think they teach. Their claims are 
displayed in Table 3.

It is quite interesting to note that as many as 28 
Francophone EFL teachers (56%) out of 50 claimed 
they teach nothing but the Standard British English ac-
cent. This claim makes one wonder if what these teach-
ers claimed they are teaching was actually what they 

taught. Such a preoccupation could only be 
addressed through classroom observation 
that was carried out at a later stage of the 
data collection process. Nineteen (38%) 
acknowledged that they teach a mixture of 
native and CamE accents and only 3 (6%) 
recognized that they teach the indigenized 

Cameroon English accent. From all indications, teach-
ers’ claims are not genuine but simply a way for them to 
show that they abide by the official recommendations 
to promote traditional native English norms.

Kachru (1986, 117) thinks it’s not only useless but 
impossible to implement Inner Circle English standards 
in postcolonial environments. That is why he disagrees 
with non-native speakers who boldly claim they speak 
Received Pronunciation. The scholar makes it clear that 
“no member of the Outer Circle speaks RP,” and upholds

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2024) Vol 4



Kouam, EFL Teaching & Learning in Cameroon 38

that “even if he could, he would lack those mannerisms 
distinct of a native speaker”. In the same vein, Todd 
(1982, 289) had earlier observed that “virtually no Af-
rican speaks RP.” It should be noted that even in Britain, 
RP features are now very scarce as research shows that 
less than 3% of the British population now uses RP 
in its pure form. Despite this literature contradicting 
teachers’ statement that they teach Standard British 
English, it was important to seek empirical evidence 
through classroom realities.

The EFL teaching scenario in Cameroon
Classroom observation involved ten EFL classes, 

five of which were conducted by Anglophone teachers 
and the other five by Francophone teachers. It ensued 
from the ten classes attended that Levis’ (2005) Native-
ness and Intelligibility principles are two paradigms 
holding sway in the Cameroonian English language 
teaching industry nowadays. It was so obvious to note 
that English language teachers with an Anglophone 
background are mostly guided by the Intelligibility 
Principle and insist on the local CamE while those with 
a Francophone background are mostly guided by the 
Nativeness Principle, despite on-going signals that the 
promotion of native English models in Cameroon is not 
yielding the expected fruits. 

Anglophone EFL teachers’ focus
An appraisal of what constitutes the target in EFL 

teaching situations for each of the two categories of 
English language teachers that were observed showed 
that Anglophone EFL teachers’ efforts are aimed at de-
veloping learners’ communicative skills through a ped-
agogic model which enables them to understand and to 
be understood by other English-speaking users. These 
are teachers who are basically trained to serve as ESL 
teachers. They proved to be more attuned to the pro-
motion of educational practices that favour a realistic, 
pragmatic and attainable speech model to the learners. 
Without forfeiting intelligibility, they train learners to 
speak English as naturally as they speak their Cameroo-
nian first languages.

Francophone EFL teachers’ focus
These are Francophones trained in Bilingual series 

to teach English to other Francophone Cameroonians. 
Classroom observation demonstrated that their ob-
jective is geared towards the attainment of native or 
native-like speech. They pretend to be teaching nothing 
but native English. However, observation showed that

their attempts to approximate these Inner Circle 
Englishes rather lead them to hypercorrection. For 
instance,  (instead of ) was 
provided by a Francophone EFL teacher as the Ameri-
can English pronunciation of module one. In the same 
vein,  (instead of ) was brandished by 
another Francophone EFL teacher as the SBE rendition 
of reject. 

The phonological rendition of th in words such as 
this and mathematics are other glaring examples that 
were observed, as the sequence was hypercorrectly ar-
ticulated by Francophone EFL teachers as /v/ and /f/, 
respectively, to the detriment of their SBE counterparts 
/ð/ and /θ/ and their CamE forms /d/ and /t/. This is 
further evidence that the increasingly high percentage 
of hypercorrect speech features in Cameroon Franco-
phone English is as a result of Francophone EFL teach-
ers’ Ukolonia mindset which vividly depicts neo-colo-
nialism as it cherishes and idealises what is foreign but 
despises and rejects what is local. 

General observations 
While Anglophone EFL teachers simply ensure 

that their learners speak English in a way that is intel-
ligible to the listeners, their Francophone colleagues 
are interested in ensuring that the learner articulates 
words following Standard British English and American 
English patterns. Interestingly, the pronunciation model 
provided by the teachers themselves does not, in most 
cases, reflect the variety they are struggling to teach. 
The learner finally does not gain much because the 
efforts to sound British or American limit their fluency 
significantly. This could explain why Francophone Cam-
eroonians are very good at English grammar but avoid 
speaking due to the fear to make mistakes (Safotso, 
2022). In fact, they are very often interrupted by their 
Francophone EFL teachers who constantly come in to 
“correct” their English pronunciation. 

It also transpired from classroom observation that 
Francophone students trained by Francophone EFL 
teachers are far less fluent in English and, consequently, 
less officially bilingual than the few trained by Anglo-
phone teachers, whose target is actual communication. 
A palpable example came from a speech exercise done 
in two Première classes in GBHS Obala where learners 
were expected to say the sentences aloud stressing the 
words in bold so as to give the sentence the rhythm or 
cadence it deserves. While the Premiere D1 learners, 
taught by an Anglophone EFL teacher, could easily and 
fluently repeat the sentences following their teacher’s

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2024) Vol 4



Kouam, EFL Teaching & Learning in Cameroon 39

local English accent, those of Premiere D2 found it very 
difficult arriving at a pronunciation their Francophone 
trainer was imposing on them. In most cases, Franco-
phone teachers’ speech was flawed by hypercorrec-
tion due to their unsuccessful attempts to respect SBE 
segmental and suprasegmental rules. At the same time, 
learners, whose speech organs could not get rid of the 
sound systems of French and their mother tongues, 
could not afford to emulate the teacher whose own 
efforts to sound native were actually fruitless. For the 
sentence, It would be great if all Cameroonians could 
have access to the internet, (Interactions in English 
1eres, p. 258) for instance, the Francophone EFL teach-
er provided the following as reference pronunciation: 
It would be  if all    access 
to  internet. On the other hand, the digest Cameroon 
English pronunciation the Anglophone EFL teacher pro-
vided to her learners enabled the latter to repeat with a 
high degree of fluency. The glaring contrast characteriz-
ing the teaching approaches used by Francophone and 
Anglophone EFL teachers led to the scrutiny of their 
training programmes. 

The Syllabus for Teacher Education
The syllabus used in training EFL teachers in 

Cameroonian higher teacher training colleges shows 
some significant differences from the one used to train 
ESL teachers. The main contrast arises from the fact 
that while ESL student teachers have all their courses 
in English from Level One to Level Five (except one 
French course that is supposed to upgrade their French 
proficiency), their EFL counterparts have 50% of their 
curriculum content constituted of French subjects and 
the other 50% being made of English subjects. 

Looking at the English subjects, both ESL and EFL 
student teachers have in common a course entitled 
English Speech and Usage, which focuses on SBE. But 
unlike their ESL mates, EFL student teachers are not 
taught a key course entitled World Englishes, which 
aims at exposing the learners to the different varieties 
of English. The course promotes indigenized English-
es, contrarily to English Speech and Usage, which only 
provides drills on Standard British English and, to an 
extent, American English. No drill on CamE or any other 
local variety is thus provided to prospective Fran-
cophone EFL teachers. The correlation between the 
course entitled World Englishes and the acceptance or 
rejection of the New Englishes such a Cameroon English 
cannot be belaboured. It is a course which values the 
New Englishes and highlights their place within the 

World Englishes arena. Consequently, the course 
contributes to build self confidence in New Englishes 
speakers, thereby making them proud of the indige-
nized Englishes. Such a course is likely to help Fran-
cophone EFL student teachers get rid of the Ukolonia 
(slave) mentality (Bokamba, 2007, 2011) which highly 
characterizes them. 

Needless pointing out that while in secondary and 
high school, most of the present student teachers ac-
quired from their own Francophone EFL teachers what 
was fallaciously presented to them as native English. 
The same fallacy is, unfortunately, reinforced through 
exposure to the course entitled English Speech and 
Usage whose sole aim is to acquaint prospective EFL 
and ESL teachers with Inner Circle English norms. The 
presence of this course in the curriculum serving in the 
training of English language teachers is due to the fact 
that it is a traditional native English variety, namely 
Standard British English, which continues to serve as 
reference model for English language teaching practic-
es across Cameroon despite the fact that researchers 
have been raising an alarm to denounce a policy which 
promotes a language variety which is not at the reach of 
Cameroonians and cannot actually convey Cameroonian 
experiences. From the numerous research endeavours 
carried out to assess Cameroonians’ familiarity with 
the British variety of English, it occurs that they sig-
nificantly lack the mastery of this model. Even teachers 
who are called upon to teach it have proven beyond any 
reasonable doubt to be ignorant of it. This has led to 
publication titles such as When the blind lead the blind: 
The fallacy of promoting Standard British English in 
Cameroon (Ngefac, 2012). 

The absence of EFL teachers’ exposure to World 
Englishes can only lead to the situation prevailing in the 
Francophone English-speaking community in Camer-
oon nowadays, where speakers twist their tongues to 
sound British or American in their English speech and 
make clear attempts to avoid uttering features that 
associate them with the local Cameroon English. Unfor-
tunately for them, it is so obvious that even when they 
successfully articulate some isolated words or sentenc-
es in accordance with traditional native English norms, 
difficulties handling aspects such as intonation and 
connected speech quickly expose their masquerade and 
reveal to the limelight that they are simply trying their 
hand in something their speech organs are unfamiliar 
with. The decolonization of Francophone EFL teachers’ 
linguistic mindset thus appears as a necessity.

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2024) Vol 4



Kouam, EFL Teaching & Learning in Cameroon 40

 The urgency of decolonising Francophone  
EFL teachers’ mindset

Francophone EFL learners in Cameroon are paying 
a huge price for the colonial linguistic indoctrination 
subtly led by such enemies of indigenised Englishes as 
Prator (1968), Quirk (1985) and Honey (1997), who 
saw the promotion of the New Englishes as a heresy. 
Looking at the current English language scenario, how 
sustainable can Quirk’s (1985) call for the use of a “sin-
gle monochrome standard form that looks as good on 
paper as it sounds in speech’’ actually be today? What 
would Honey (1997) think of his own declaration that 
if speakers of English in the New Nations create their 
own standard, they are likely to be excluded from the 
global scene because they cannot exercise the same 
level of competence as other members of the world En-
glish-speaking community? These advocates of a New 
Englishes genocide thought they could continuously 
impose Inner Circle English norms all over the world. 
It is left to Outer and Expanding Circle users to realise 
that they outnumber the traditional native speakers 
by far and this numerical advantage must permit them 
to set and follow norms which capture the cosmology 
of the specific non-native English-speaking countries. 
Unfortunately, some non-native speakers (e.g., Franco-
phone Cameroonians) continue to be at the forefront 
to combat the Englishes that carry the colours of their 
sociocultural realities. 

The following report by Platt, Weber & Ho (1984, 
170) is a clear indication that the decolonisation of 
many non-native English speakers’ linguistic mindset 
is a matter of utmost importance. The scholars indicate 
that in a workshop on the English language in Singa-
pore, a speaker with a conspicuous Singaporean accent 
passionately affirmed: “I speak RP.” Surprisingly, his 
statement rather provoked laughter and protest from 
the British audience. Such behaviours make one won-
der why speakers of the New Englishes undervalue the 
varieties of English that they speak and rather want to 
identify themselves with foreign models. Ngefac (2012) 
attempts an explanation to this state of affairs, hypoth-
esising that the reason which has influenced some 
Cameroonians to change their black skin using chemi-
cal products in order to look white like their ex-colonial 
masters is the same reason at the base of their negative 
attitude towards the languages that are rooted in the 
sociocultural and sociolinguistic realities of their coun-
try. He upholds that such people believe the greatness 
of Cameroon lies “in the ability of Cameroonians to 
prove that they master ex-colonial languages as much

as, or even more than traditional native speakers of the 
languages” themselves. 

When will Africans actually realise that “when an 
African speaks American English, the credit goes to 
America,” as rightly pointed out by Micheal Ndemanu 
in May 2023 during the Second World Conference on 
Transformative Education held in Ghana? There are 
many Anglophone Cameroonians who successfully 
carry out their daily activities worldwide using their 
indigenised CamE accent. Just like no language can por-
tray one’s identity better than their mother tongues, no 
English variety can depict the sociocultural realities of 
a new English setting or express the ways and thoughts 
of its users better than the local variety. It is equally ob-
vious that it is only through their native or indigenised 
languages that individuals can actually showcase their 
highest degree of creativity, self-confidence and perfor-
mance. 

What can justify the persistence of colonialist 
visions like Simo Bobda’s (2004) equating the language 
policy applied by the British in Cameroon during the 
colonial period to a linguistic apartheid, and advocating 
“not just English per se, but Standard British English” in 
Cameroon? This is a vision which takes on the British 
administration for keeping Africans away from “good 
English”. For its author, the British should have drilled 
Africans on Standard British English. Africans in gener-
al and Francophone Cameroonians in particular should 
stop seeing native English speech as more prestigious, 
correct and intelligible than their local varieties. Doing 
so is ignoring Kachru’s (1992, 67) call on all English 
users around the world to “realise that this new role of 
English [as an international language] puts a burden 
on those who use it as their first language, as well as 
on those who use it as their second language.” That is 
to say, it is not the duty of non-native speakers alone 
to speak English in a way that ensures international 
intelligibility. Francophone EFL teachers in Cameroon 
should be acquainted with this and should equally 
think of some powerful declarations from such post-
colonial thinkers as Achebe who were able, as far back 
as in the 1960s, to perceive indigenized varieties of 
English as real forces to reckon with. They should be 
aware that the English language has become a global 
resource and the possession of every community that 
in any way uses it regardless of what any other individ-
ual or community may feel or think about the matter 
(McArthur, 1999).

In a world dominated by the West, Africa must 
strive to get its own share through fights of various

Global Journal of Transformative Education (2024) Vol 4



Kouam, EFL Teaching & Learning in Cameroon 41

natures, including linguistic struggles. It is no news that 
language is power. American imperialism has been very 
successful thanks to the spread of the English language. 
If Africa cannot totally rely on indigenous languages 
to face the rest of the world, its indiginised English 
varieties can play a major role. Kouam (in production) 
strongly believes that Cameroonian and African natural 
resources are appealing enough to America and Europe. 
If the indigenised African varieties of English appear 
to be the sole means of communication through which 
discussions regarding these resources can be held, 
the Western World will not resist. They will embrace 
indigenised African English models. Francophone EFL 
teachers’ mindset, as it stands, is contrary to African 
transformative development initiatives and visions. 
It must be reshaped through decolonisation. The best 
method to deconstruct and reconstruct Francophone 
EFL teachers’ English linguistic mindset in Cameroon 
remains the teaching of the course entitled World En-
glishes to EFL student teachers. The teaching of such a 
course will definitely influence their attitudes towards 
indigenised English varieties. 

Fewer and fewer studies now brandish traditional 
native speakers of English as sole norm-providers and 
non-native speakers as followers of the established 
norms. Instead, most works (e.g., Levis, 2005) require 
that the Nativeness Principle, which used to prevail in 
the teaching of English pronunciation in both native 
and non-native contexts, should now pave the way to 
the Intelligibility Principle, which best addresses all 
contexts of second or foreign language teaching/learn-
ing. Francophone EFL teachers in Cameroon should 
follow this principle which simply requires learners 
to be intelligible. Therefore, language policy makers in 
Cameroon should recommend mainstream Cameroon 
English for both ESL and EFL teaching to the detriment 
of Standard British English. Studies have shown that 
CamFE contains many features of CamE and very few 
features of SBE even though CamFE speakers paradox-
ically display a very negative attitude towards CamE 
and a very positive one towards SBE. The codification 
process of CamE is far advanced. The legitimate fea-
tures of its educated variety as well as features that 
can be considered as mistakes and excluded are well 
known. More textbooks need to be designed based on 
its educated variety to enable a smooth teaching of this 
local English model.

Conclusion
Although English is mainly a colonial heritage for 

Cameroonians and other Africans, postcolonial nations 
should develop pride for its local varieties, as they are 
emblematic of our sociocultural realities. As for now, 
there is almost no alternative to English as a global 
lingua franca. It would be fallacious to think that a 
Cameroonian indigenous language can guarantee the 
instrumental role that English fulfils today. The issue 
is thus that of the variety that should be promoted. In 
the Cameroonian context, CamE should be the target in 
ELT rather than Standard British English. If the Camer-
oonian EFL teaching stakeholders (who are mostly of a 
Francophone background) emulate their fellow Anglo-
phone colleagues in the teaching of an accent which 
is at the reach of the learners and is rooted in their 
sociolinguistic and sociocultural realities, Francophone 
Cameroonian learners will develop greater competenc-
es in oral communication. The exposure of prospective 
Francophone EFL teachers to World Englishes, as is 
already the case with ESL teachers, can seriously play 
in favour of this. The present situation which is charac-
terized by the unattainable objective of approximating 
native Englishes ignites frustrations in the students, as 
they remain unable to communicate actively in the lan-
guage. Also, embracing CamE rather than SBE can only 
reinforce national integration. There is thus a necessity 
to join Wa Thiongo (1986) in his call for a decoloniza-
tion of the mind. Levis’ (2005) Intelligibility Principle 
should also be the watchword in the Cameroonian EFL 
teaching industry nowadays given that the Nativeness 
Principle which has so far been followed by Franco-
phone EFL teachers simply leads to hypercorrection, a 
phenomenon which was observed to be compromising 
Francophone learners’ ability to speak English naturally 
and fluently.

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Clement Kouam (kouamclement@gmail.com) is a part-
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Author


