CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

The Republic of Cameroon is a multilingual country comprising some two hundred and forty-seven (247) indigenous languages, a lingua franca (Cameroon Pidgin English), and two official languages English and French). These official languages are a result of the Franco-British rule between the end of the First World War and Independence.

The quality of French spoken in the University of Buea (one of the two Anglo- Saxon universities in Cameroon) in general and by the English students in particular is a major trouble and cause for concern. Some pertinent reasons seem to pose serious threat to the functioning of students in French language at the University.

The country in general, in order to tight this, have imposed both languages (French and English) as university requirement which is a must-do affair in order to succeed at UB. This is known as (Use of French or FRE 101 102) on all undergraduate students with a minimum of 50% pass as one of the basic requirements for graduation.

As it is noticed that Anglophone students rarely excel in the French language, it is hoped that these measures would improve Anglophone students’ French language usage, thereby enabling them to write and speak the French language more.

Statement Of The Problem

The French language seems to increasingly becoming more of a problem to level 200 Anglophone students studying bilingual letters at the University of Buea.

Objectives

The main objective of this research is to find out the cause of poor French language proficiency of level 200 Anglophone students of bilingual letters at the University of Buea.

1. To find out the cause of the student poor proficiency in the French language.
2. To find out the problems they face in the process of learning the language.
3. To evaluate the difficulties students face in learning French language.
4. To find out the influences they have from other language and how it has affected their competency the French language.

Hypothesis

The level 200 Anglophone students of English and French studies have difficulties in learning/functioning proper French language.

They do have serious limitations in French language.

Research Question

The level 200 Anglophone students of English and French have difficulties in learning proper French language.

From the main idea that some English-speaking Cameroonians have difficulties at the level of pronunciation and tense and vocabulary in the learning of French language arise the following research questions which will be examine during the study.

1. What is the cause of the difficulty to English-speaking Cameroonians at the level of pronunciation and vocabulary?
2. Are they aware of these difficulties or they just see it as a hindrance to the learning of French language?

Considering the questions that this study aims at answering, it will be interesting to see how these difficulties bring about a difference in the way pronunciation, tense and vocabulary is being handled.

Scope Of The Study

This research will be carried out on the level 200 Anglophone students of English and French at the University of Buea and will seek to examine the areas of difficulty. This is due to time and financial constraints.

Read Also: Attitude And The Learning Of English Language By Anglophone English Major Students