Abstract

This study is an investigation into the effects of an un-encouraging environmental experience on the interest trend in English use in Saint Therese International Nursery and Primary School and Bilingual Grammar School Molyko.

It comprises a descriptive methodology involving the survey of the school that has an interest in the pupils and students performance of academic excellence. The sample included 20 randomly selected teachers and parents and 50 randomly selected students all of categories from different forms, and levels. A questionnaire and interview was used to collect the data. These findings reveal how bad environmental experiences affect pupils and students’ academic and future language performance.

However, much more in-depth research will need to be undertaken for concrete evidence to be maintained. These significant findings point to the fact that parents, teachers and students themselves are aware of what poor languages at childhood and continuously, have on their language use.

However, only a few are brought up in the right place and with adequate training from parents and teachers. The implication is that the collaboration of parents and teachers and peer groups will enhance interest trends in English usage. In so doing, better academic performance can be achieved.

CHAPTER ONE

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

During the First World War, between 1914 and 1918, Germany was defeated in Cameroon and lost it in 1915. Cameroon was partitioned between Britain and France. With the language of Britain which was and is still English, the inhabitants of their controlled area, that is, Anglophone Cameroon had to either acquire or learn and use the English language. France had to make Francophone Cameroon use French. These languages being English and French are now used as languages of instruction.

However, with the plebiscite in 1961, the two Cameroons united to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon under this union. English and French became the two official languages. This eventually gives birth to two categories of people in the country (French speaking or Francophone and English speaking or Anglophone).

According to Fishman (1973), about 75% of secondary school children in Cameroon are interested in learning English although English is a foreign language. This is because English is a world language and the “number one “language in terms of access to better education. For instance, English is a popular research language in Cameroon; English has so many roles, it is the language of exchange in the Markets. It is also the language of work.

It is the greatest scientific language, that is, language of technology, language of commerce, business language and the language of communication. Everything being equal, we expect that English as an international language or foreign language should produce poorer results than English as a mother tongue because people can get more efficient with the language they speak everyday than when the language is being interfered with other local languages.

Cameroonians learn English in the classroom, the internet, through media as television and nevertheless, the interest that arises in the usage of English language among different categories of students could also play an important role in the acquisition and learning of English.

Classifying according to categories, I am looking at students who simply prefer to speak other languages and especially pidgin which is a lingua franca in Cameroon. This usage of only English or mostly pidgin among children is not only a choice on their part but also an effect from family backgrounds and therefore has a major effect among children who come to study or interact in one environment.

It is therefore clear that the mix up of people or students who communicate either only in English or pidgin should produce both negative and positive results for Cameroonians trying to acquire and learn English. These effects are seen in terms of academic performances, creation of friendships, and any gathering; for instance, when these different students meet to prepare for an expose to be presented in class.

Definition Of Terms

For a better understanding of the work, some operational terms used in this work shall be explained

Usage

The Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary (O.A.L.D) (2013:1644) defines usage as the way in which words are used in a language, or a habitual and customary practice especially a creating a right obligation, or standard.

The O.A.L.D (2013) defines interest as the feeling of wanting to know more or learn about something or someone or still, the quality of exciting curiosity or holding the attention.

Trend

The O.A.L.D (2006:978) defines trend as a general direction in which something is developing or changing. Cameroon is going through a change or development in their use of English which is mostly negative.

Multilingual

The Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary (2008:935) defines multilingual as being able to use more than two languages for communication, or a thing written and spoken in more than two different languages.

Mother Tongue

In the year 2011 during the population censuses conducted on the Canadian population, statistics Canada defines mother tongue as the first language learned at home in childhood and still understood by the individual at the time of the census.

The census states that English and French are the Mother tongues of 59.9% and 21.3% of Canadians. This definition is true but in Cameroon, people’s mother tongues is not necessarily English or French but other dialects, making Cameroonians to use English as their second language.

Francophone

Still, O.A.L.D (2013:595) defines Francophone as speaking French as the main language. This definition will help us to know the linguistic situation of Cameroon influences the interest trends in which Cameroonians acquire and learn English language.

Second Language

Klein (1986:19) defines a second language as one that becomes another tool of communication alongside the first language. It is typically acquired in a social environment in which it is actually spoken. Looking at this definition, an Anglophone Cameroonian who has a mother tongue learns English as a second language.

Statement of The Problem

The fact that Pidgin English is becoming a highly communicative language in Cameroon, some parents rather prefer to place strict rules on their children against using this language, by letting them speak only English as a second language. They do this because they believe English will help their children excel well in their studies and the society at large.

This therefore makes these children when they grow up, to have an interest in speaking only English and such children mostly create friendships and associations only among themselves and those who communicate mainly in pidgin are comfortable discussing only with their friends who also speak pidgin.

Some Cameroonians do use English very well both in the spoken and written media despite their upbringing and interest, yet there are some complaints about the type of English people use causing limitations in interaction between people and a serious fall in the manner at which people are interested to use the language. These complaints if looked into critically have to do with the falling standards of English in Cameroon influenced by the mentality parents create in their children’s minds at an earlier age.

Scope Of The Study/ Delimitation Of The Study

The study examines how homes help Cameroonians to develop interest and motivation to use English as a second language both positively and negatively. The study involves primary and secondary school students wherein St Therese Nursery and Primary School and Bilingual Grammar school Molyko and some university students were used.

I chose government and private schools because of the motivation I gained in the English Language when I was growing up. I grew up in a very strict English speaking home and studied in a private school at the secondary level and in a government school at the higher level. I seriously began to feel these differences in the interest in the usage of English especially when I got to the university and met other children from different schools interacting. This went a long way to prove that English was going through a Trend of interests.

Aim Of The Study

The aim of this study is to evaluate the type of influence that family backgrounds have on the interest in the use of English language that develops among different people. In other words, the focus is on the different trends in English language which changes the way students use Language making a difference in students’ interest, motivation, excitement, and anxiety to exploit the language more and more as time goes on.

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