Rethinking and Reconfiguring English Language Education : Averting Linguistic Genocide in Cameroon

The over 285 indigenous languages of Cameroon may be crushed by the English language. To ensure a sustainable linguistic ecological balance whose peace is undoubtedly threatened by the global imperialistic terrors of English colonialism, an overhaul of ELT practitioners is needed. The English language is taught and learned in Cameroon against a conflictual linguistic platform of French (the other official language of questionable equal status as English), Pidgin English and over 285 indigenous languages. Of these local languages, just about 40 are currently being used (taught) in education at the different levels of education in the country. The aim of this paper was to examine the English language politics, practices and teaching. It thereafter evaluated English language teachers’ perception of the so called English Language Teaching Tenets. It also aimed at assessing the functional load of English and it ascertained the extent to which it was threatening the development of local languages as well as effective access to education in Cameroon.


Introduction
The English language is doubtlessly a solid actively promoted strategic weapon of postcolonial domination.Cameroon like most third-world countries inherited English from European colonizers and after decolonization, the English language remained one of the ace instruments that the colonizers use to maintain their hegemony.Tollefson (2000:9) maintains that in the United States of America and in Australia, the "…preeminent position of English has contributed to the death of indigenous languages," thereby depriving the indigenes of the communicative, the emblematic or identity and security rights and privileges that these local languages endow on their owners.English language and English Language pedagogy support, spread and promote the political, military, economic and cultural pressures that the language carries as its functional load in conquering and occupying our minds since colonialism did not end with the colonial occupation.There is need now to reflect on, question or even reject some of the outdated normative practices that were adopted from the colonialist assimilationist educational policies.Language policy is the wide range of governmental and non-governmental measures premeditated to influence language acquisition and language use.English has projected itself tall in medicine, computer and software development, science, research, mass media and mass media entertainment, technology, transnational businesses, shipping, aviation, diplomacy, international organizations, youth culture, sports and educational systems.To exemplify the overbearing and pervasively invading force of English at all levels of only the Cameroon educational system, we realize that virtually all the State-owned universities in Cameroon have each a Department of English or units in charge of the teaching of English.Apart from being the medium of instruction in the English-speaking sub-system of education in Cameroon, English Language is a compulsory subject in all educational institutions at all levels of the educational system.Entrance into state universities is conditioned by a pass in English at the ordinary level.This is irrespective of the fact that all the Advanced Level Subjects that warrant the pass into university are written in English.In other words, a candidate writes and passes History, Geography, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Economics, Mathematics etc in English; but is obliged to have passed the English Language paper before s/he could be admitted into any university.In testimony of this distressing hegemonic role of the English language is this 2016 press release signed by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Bamenda (a state-owned university) to open undergraduate admissions into the faculties for the 2016/2017 academic year.Under the rubric of the basic requirements for admission on page 2 of the press release, one reads among others that "…Candidates seeking admission into any of these faculties must have: GCE O/L [General Certificate of Education, Ordinary Level] in at least five (05) subjects including English Language (excluding religious studies), or Probatoire with a pass in English Language or its Equivalent Basing on the above-mentioned requirements for entry into a state owned university in Cameroon, it is horrible to ascertain that over 70% of Cameroonian youths are deprived of access to higher education; given that the percentage pass in the English Language Paper in the General Certificate of Education examination over the past years has not gone beyond 30%.
It is evidently on the basis of the this embarrassing situation that the same Vice Chancellor of the University of Bamenda sought Higher Education Ministerial authorization and organized an English Language Proficiency test for candidates seeking admission into the University of Bamenda but who did not pass in English at the Ordinary Level of the GCE.This was however, only for the 2016/2017 academic year.This implies that the English Language requirement policy for admission into state-owned universities in Cameroon remains intact.
In the same way, English-speaking Cameroonians who have studied in English all through their lives are required to pass the English language proficiency Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) organized by the English before these Cameroonians could be eligible for the Chevening scholarships which are funded by the Commonwealth Office and its partner organizations which are mostly university institutions.Meanwhile, Escobar (2004) holds that the consideration of education as a way of transferring knowledge is synonymous to the perpetuation of global hierarchies and the justification of the need for First World countries to continue intervening in the less advanced nations of the world.In the same vein, Phillipson (1992) posits that the configuration of English Language Teaching with middle-ofthe-road goals of development transforms ELT into an industry that sends experts from the Centre to teach in the Periphery with little attention to social, political and economic contextualisation and in spite of all these criticisms, Toh (2003) says that ELT goals of carrying across knowledge from TESOL Centres to less developed Peripheries keep persisting.
However, according to Gary (2015) the necessity for enduring and lifelong learning, for lithe and flexible school leavers with good quality communication and information and communication skills invariably require competency in English.This is particularly with regard to dealing with international markets and international transactions Biloa and Echu (2008) hold that Though English and French are imported languages originally associated with colonial rule, in the period since independence they have become so much part of Cameroonian cultural heritage that many Cameroonians now identify themselves strongly in relation to these languages as being first and foremost Anglophone or Francophone and only secondly as belonging to a single Cameroonian nation.This is perhaps most strongly so among the Anglophones who perceive the dominance of French as a threat to English and to equal Anglophone participation in Cameroonian life and who have developed a heightened loyalty to English as a direct consequence of this.This citation from Edmond Biloa and George Echu betrays the brainwashing that Cameroonians have so far undergone: having to believe that languages parachuted upon them have automatically become part of their cultural heritage.Instead, these languages came to tear down their cultural heritage.This paper seeks to find out the extent to which English language practioners are aware that they are programmed by English in the orchestration of indigenous languages' genocide in Cameroon.It thereafter attempts to seek how justice could be done for local languages to live alongside the English practices through multilingual education approaches.This is in a bid to balance the linguistic ecological discrepancy in the global biodiversity.This is because language is part of culture and culture is part of man, and man is part of the ecosystem which is part of the planet earth.So advertently or inadvertently planning to kill languages through exclusive linguistic practices is tantamount to destroying the planet.

The 2016/2017 Anglophone Uprising and the English Language terrorism
The recent November 2016 -January 2017 violent confrontations between the populations of the Anglophone regions of Cameroon and the Cameroonian forces of law and order were not for the preservation of the English Language inherited from the British colonizers as some English-speaking politicians and Francophone Cameroonians mistakenly believed.It was a tussle for the preservation of some of the macro educational, social, legal, health and sanitary, political and administrative systems, practices and values inherited from their British colonizers.The warm and positive attitude of Anglophone Cameroonians towards the British ways may be explained from the an English Government here.''Till date, (April 2017 fact that in 1879 and 1881, as quoted by Schneider, (2007: 213) from Schmied 1991a:10-1, Todd (1982a:6) and Chumbow and Simo Bobda (1996:403), the local kings explicitly sent petitions to the Queen requesting formal annexation, asking for ''English laws in our towns'' and ''), the crises persist with the boycott of education in private Higher Education, secondary and primary school institutions in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon.This boycott continues in spite of frantic government efforts to cajole, persuade or threaten parents, students and teachers to resume effective classes.
The earlier mentioned cherished values which spilled over from the British occupation of the Anglophone regions are felt as being systematically corroded, eroded, corrupted and replaced by the systems, practices and values that the Francophones inherited from France.This is what they termed the francophonisation of the Anglophones in Cameroon.
The announcement on December 31, 2016 and the creation of the National Commission on the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism on the 23 rd of January 2017 by President Paul Biya, president of the Republic of Cameroon aim among others at the fostering of national unity and integration between Anglophones and Francophones on the one hand, and then the over 250 distinct ethnic and cultural entities on the other.In other words, the Commission aims at enhancing the living-togetherness of Francophones and Anglophones in Cameroon.According to Nkwetisama, (2016: 79) this living-togetherness is threatened by: The socio-historical-political context of Cameroon as well as the fact that people from different ethnicities come in contact for academic, economic, social, civil service or just for national integration purposes, makes it common to hear people from different ethnic groups identifying by describing others with words like 'bamenda'( a gullible, malleable, easily duped or slave-like person), 'gada mayo' (a stranger in our land or a person to whom equal consideration should not be given ), 'bami (bamileke)'(a tribalistic tight-fisted person who thinks of everything in terms of money, and are associated with 'famlaah'(witchcraft), 'nyangi', (a prostitute or highly frivolous girl or woman), 'wadjo' ( an uncivilized Muslim or just someone from the north), 'come-no-go' (a person from the North West Region working in the South West Region, generally considered as land-grabbers), 'nkwah' (a person from the Centre or South Region, considered as spendthrifts or sometimes irresponsible), 'anglo' (generally a person from North West or South West Region, often regarded as being as primitive with thoughts and behavior that are contrary to that of the francophone ), 'frog' (uncultured, hypocritical and disrespectful rascals who want everything for them through the easiest possible way).These conflicted interpersonal, and intergroup, appellations or articulations are linguistic retaliations and counterretaliations of grief and anger and sometimes, the feelings of indignation and contempt accompanying them are so strong as to be able to raise ethnic tensions and sectarianism, and sometimes do ignite open confrontation among youths or adults in and out of school milieus.They constitute social-behavioural symptoms of conflict that require serious attention through peace education.
While hailing the putting in place of such a structure, this paper however does not weaken its stance on the terrorist threats of the English Language on the vulnerable local languages.This is in the case where the Commission does not make sustainable programmes for the systematic development and use of the Cameroon local languages.This paper is couched within Gramsci's critical social theory which has as one of its key tenets, "hegemony."Hegemony is referred to the experience of meanings, ideas and values as absolute reality.For example, the overbearing supremacy of the English language is often, taken to be an obvious matter of common sense and as such remains unquestioned.This uncritical acceptance of the reality of English is a manifestation of the "hegemony" of English; that is, the uncritical perception that it has achieved a supreme global status.
Fundamental aspects of the domination of English are ideologies of language and the beliefs about language that shape fundamental views of reality.The realities are constructed through discourses that are principally fabricated to influence the action and behaviours of others.For instance the 'standard language ideology' as opposed to the 'nonstandard' is incredibly powerful and pervasive to the extent that they are extensively accommodated as self-evident "truths" or "common sense,'' and thus basically remote from the sphere of overt debate.
We are made to understand that at the time of colonization, the domination of the local languages of the colonizers was not only imposed and encouraged, but that the natives were forbidden to use their mother tongues; violation of which the students were subject to beating, demotion or humiliation.Many people focus on the quasi advantages of the imposition of English on the local populations.They believe that adopting a foreign language will bridge tribal barriers and thus enhance national unity and inter-national communication.Mazrui (1973: 66) for example holds that "Learning English was a detribalizing process" and that anyone who knew English was no more a tribesman and could therefore help in the detribalization of the African mind; thereby giving it a national dimension.
According to Kirkpatrick (2007), the Congress of Negro Writers and Artists of 1959 opted for the adoption of and promotion of a Pan African language to be used in all the countries of the continent so as to get rid of the temptation to take colonizers' languages which were sources of cultural alienation and psychological amputation.Swahili was chosen but the project did not succeed beyond countries like Kenya and Tanzania.Ngugi wa Thiongo believed that adopting English was a final triumph of a system of domination as the dominated embark on the singing of the virtues of the colonisers' language.
To Achebe (2005: 171), English language is a historical fact and writers should adopt and adapt and aim "…at fashioning out English which is at once universal and able to carry [their] personal experience" Achebe's position is similar to those who think that standard English should be de-formed and re-formed to suit the thoughts they want it to convey.Whether we de-form or re-form English, it remains an alien language and more so, what becomes of the life of local African language?If they are not vitalized and put into active use, they would die.

Linguistic human rights
The multidimensional invasion forces of English endangers the cultural and linguistic values of the over 285 indigenous languages of Cameroon.To ensure a sustainable linguistic ecological balance that is undoubtedly threatened by the global imperialistic terrors of English colonialism, an overhaul of ELT practitioners is needed.This is because the periphery and the core are served differently by the English language.As the English language spreads, the core benefits, whereas, periphery countries are bound to face the supplementary trouble and expenditure of operating language education programmes, training of teachers, learning English, as well as having to buy materials and text or coursebooks.Skutnabb-Kangas (1995) and Pennycook (1994b) hold that language policies that favour the spread of English are thoroughly and intimately connected with asymmetrical political, social, and economic relationships between nations and institutions.

Socio-political dimensions of English language teaching
Phillipson (2012:2) defines language pedagogy as "… the scientific study language learning and language teaching" and goes forward to hold that it " … has been isolated from the social sciences for too long, and that ELT (sic) needs to be situated in a macro-societal theoretical perspective".Robert Phillipson regrets the fact that in language pedagogy, the connections between language, military, economic, political and certainly cultural power are not often pursued since focus is most often on what goes on in the classroom or on related organizational and methodological issues.On his part, Crystal (2000: 83) holds that in Africa, at least for now, "…none of the 1,200 or so languages indigenous to Africa is used as a medium of instruction in secondary schools."This hegemonic status is inextricably connected to neocolonial stratifications of the society characterized by the association of success and social mobility with mastery of English and western models of English.
For Elena Ciprianova and Michal Vanco, English is not a neutral medium of communication; for people in the Periphery it symbolizes the divisive line between wealth and poverty both within their home country and between their country and the Centre.(Ciprianova and Vanco 2010:126) ELT in Cameroon does not seem to be moving an inch from the obsolete ideologically loaded one-size-fit-all top-down prescriptions on what, when and how to teach English.It relentlessly pursues colonial education which consists in assimilating the subaltern local ELT practitioners, students and pupils or just the population as a whole to the Western ways of thinking and seeing the realities of the world.During my six years as an in-service teacher trainer (inspector of English language teaching), I, in ignorance promoted the unflinching clinging onto the prescribed 'modern' approaches, methods and techniques of English language teaching.When I became a pre-service teacher trainer, I followed up my student-teachers to the field during their practicum.While on the field, I realised the difficulty in killing old habits in the cooperating teachers of my students.
Discussions on ELT in national, regional and divisional level workshops, seminars and conferences; and even lectures in English Departments of Teacher Training Colleges in private and state-owned universities often centre on micro pedagogical matters like teaching methods and techniques, use of information and communication technologies, the "how to's" in classroom management, discussions on findings in different psychological aspects of effective ways of learning and teaching.Little attention is often paid on more macro dimensions of ELT like the political, social and cultural issues which include language policies and their implications in the classroom as well as the crucial role of the teacher in (re)creating these policies in the classroom.Though these issues may seem intangible and irrelevant than pedagogical ones, or that they may look peripheral to the immediate duties of the English language teacher, they -the social, cultural and political dimensions of ELT -are embedded in all the decisions that these teachers make.Kelly and Eggington (2000) hold that language policies, cultural expectations about the roles of students and teachers as well as their identities in terms of gender, race, ethnicity and nationality inform and constrain classroom practices.Kelly and Eggington (2000:1) confirm that Thus, as important to the development of English language teacher expertise as knowledge of effective classroom practices may be is our understanding of these more macro dimensions of pedagogy and how they shape both our roles as teachers and our students' roles as learners.
It is therefore necessary to provoke teachers' sensibilities, rouse discussions and raise students' awareness of these matters.'Good pedagogy' requires that teachers know why they must make the decisions they make everyday.

English Linguistic Imperialism in Cameroon
As stated earlier, Cameroon has about 285 indigenous languages, but these multitudes of weapons of the translation and transmission of her rich cultural diversity are almost utterly veiled by English and French; though the focus of this paper is English.'Language in development', according to Tangyie Evani (2016: 538), "…is in a way to look at how language is used to mobilize, motivate and energize people to make use of available resources in the realization of a common vision of becoming masters of their own destiny".
Paradoxically, instead of vitalising and using our local languages, policy makers, citizens, teachers and parents seem to have been made to believe in the imperialistic tenets of the English language and English language education.Before delving into a presentation of these dangerous tenets, we have to examine what linguistic imperialism refers to.Phillipson (2012:47) defines English linguistic imperialism as a state where the "…dominance of English is asserted and maintained by the establishment and continuous reconstitution of structural and cultural inequalities between English and other languages."By structural, Robert Phillipson means material properties like institutions and financial allocations (the British Council, scholarships to study English, the Cameroon English Language and Literature Teachers' Association (CAMELTA), English Clubs, Commonwealth Clubs etc), while cultural refers to immaterial or ideological properties like attitudes and pedagogical principles.This transfer of a dominant language -English -to other people is an example of linguicism and Phillipson (2012: 47) refers to linguicism as … ideologies, structures and practices which are used to legitimate, effectuate, and reproduce an unequal division of power and resources (both material and immaterial) between groups which are defined on the basis of language.
Since the focus of this paper is on the cultural inequalities between English language, English language education and local languages education in Cameroon, we shall now examine the imperialistic pedagogic principles or English Language Teaching tenets and then, the attitudes of ELT practioners towards these principles in order to ascertain the justification for rethinking and reconfiguaration.

The English Language Teaching tenets
These tenets constitute part of the hegemonic processes that strive to sustain the domination of English over other languages.Phillipson (2012:185) considered them false from the bases of research and theory.He redesignated them as fallacies as we have indicated in the parentheses after each tenet.These tenets of English applied linguistics and English language teaching methodologies specify that: v English is best taught monolingually ("monolingual fallacy") v The ideal teacher is a native speaker ("the native-speaker fallacy") v The earlier English is taught, the better the results ("the early-start fallacy") v The more English is taught, the better the results ("the maximum-exposure fallacy") v If other languages are used much, standards of English will drop ("the subtractive fallacy").
Other promoters of the hegemony of English over indigenous languages like the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and English Language Schools maintain intrinsic, extrinsic and functional arguments.
v The intrinsic argument describes the English language as rich, providential, interesting and noble.These arguments assert what English is and what other language are not.v The extrinsic arguments highlight that English is solidly grounded and well-established.This implies that it has many speakers, many trained teachers and quantitatively and qualitatively rich and available teaching and learning materials.v The functional arguments underscore the practical usefulness of English as a gateway to the world.
Meanwhile, the ideological function argument says English stands for modernity.v Other arguments uphold the economic utility of English in that it enables people to efficiently operate technology.English therefore has the status as a symbol for material advancement and efficiency.
Most of these arguments are themes and slogans that are often found on posters made by the Ministries of Basic and of Secondary Education during the yearly national Week/days of French/English bilingualism in Cameroon.

Attitudes of ELT practionners towards the imperialistic ELT principles
The following data was generated in order to ascertain the justification for rethinking and reconfiguration.The sample population on which the main instrument for the collection of data -the questionnaire-was administered consisted of pre-service post-graduate English language teachers and experienced teachers on the field.Data from the experienced teachers who were examiners of the General Certificate of Education (GCE) was collected during the marking of the 2016 session of the GCE examination in Cameroon.Though randomly selected, their English language teaching experience range was 5-15 years.On the other hand, the pre-service teachers were contacted at the end of their training.This was during the defences of their post-graduate dissertations at the Higher Teachers Training College of the University of Bamenda Cameroon in July 2016.Their ages and sexes were not considered in the analyses of the information obtained from them.From table 1 it is observed that 25% and 31%, that is, a total of 56.48% of Cameroonian teachers of English gullibly imbibe the fallacy that English is best taught monolingually.Such a percentage justifies the need for the re-conceptualisation of English language education; as Elgin (2000) upholds the conviction that multilingualism is desirable for humankind and should be encouraged in every way possible.The information on table 2 reveals that the majority (52.69%) of English language teachers in Cameroon believe that the ideal English language teacher is the native one.Native-speaker here is not the Anglophone Cameroonian Englishspeaker, but expatriates; be them British, Americans or any other white people.3 indicates that only 32.4% of Cameroonian English language teachers do not subscribe to the earlystart fallacy.In other words, they believe that learners acquire English better when the language is introduced earlier.This explains why in Cameroon, this language is introduced to children right at the nursery school (kindergarten) levels of both the French and English-peaking subsystems of education.In the English-speaking subsystem, English serves not only as the medium of instruction, but is also a subject on the nursery education curriculum.Meanwhile, in the Frenchspeaking subsystem of education, French is the medium of instruction and English language learning activities occupy considerable space on the curriculum.59.27% of English language teachers in Cameroon hold that standards of English will drop if too much room is given to the use of other languages.This implies that local or indigenous languages are considered here as threats to the standards of English.This translates the reason why on the some doors to offices and on strategic positions on the campuses of the Universities of Buea and Bamenda one reads notices like "No pidgin here" or "No pidgin on Campus."Besides, in most schools, especially in the remote areas (villages) it is often forbidden to use the predominant mother tongues on the school compounds.In spite of all these stringent measures a Cameroon English is still struggling to emerge as one will frequently hear or read utterances like: v Here is the man that the president of ELECAM came to his office v The annual leave thing is supposed to be automatic v I am saying that eh, the application is not compulsory.
These utterances are commonly heard or read among university students, businessmen and in church milieu and may be considered by imperialists as fallen or falling standards of English; meanwhile they are aspects of Cameroon English forging their way through.Here, it is merely a question of barely standards, meanwhile with our indigenous languages, it is an issue of eminent life and death of the languages.Such syntactic, orthographic, morphological, lexicological variations may be deemed deviations and not rightful linguistic behavior.A huge majority of 64.83% of Cameroonian English language teachers concur that better results are obtained if English is taught more.This justifies why in all the French-speaking and English-speaking learning institutions in the country, English is supposed to be taught on a daily basis.This equally explains why some authorities of the British High Commission were very bitter about the extremely poor performances of Cameroonians in the English Language Paper in the GCE examination over the last three years.This frowning at the poor results in the GCE was expressed on the "Morning Safari" programme of the Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV) of Thursday 15 th September 2016 at about 5:40 a.m.(the programme ended that very day after fifteen years of existence).It is read on table 6 that 63.89% of English language teachers in Cameroon judge that English is rich, providential, interesting and noble.These teachers tend to forget that no language is inferior to the other.All languages in the world carry in the same way the rich, providential, interesting and noble cultures of their owners.62.97% of Cameroonian English language teachers of table 8 think that English is for modernity and a gateway to the world.This implies that they ignore the fact that there are so many other non-English-speaking countries that are modern and open to the world.Table 9 shows that 67.60% of the teachers think that English is a symbol for material advancement and technological efficiency.This is certainly not true because other non-English-speaking countries are materially advanced and technologically efficient.

Conclusion
The aim of this paper was to assess the functional load of English and to ascertain the extent to which it is threatening the development of local languages as well as effective access to education in Cameroon.It is obvious from the foregone analyses that the functional load of English in Cameroon encourages its spread and threat.It is equally true that English is a stumbling block to the educational and intellectual development of Cameroonians and finally that Cameroonian English language practioners are uncritical and are uninformed of the effects of the propaganda of the English language teaching tenets.There is need for Cameroonian language educational stakeholders to pay more attention to the macro dimensions which do not only include the political, social and cultural issues involving language policies but also their implications in the classroom as well as the crucial role of the teacher in (re)creating these policies in the classroom.These issues may appear intangible and irrelevant than pedagogical ones, or that they may give the impression of being peripheral to the immediate duties of the English language teacher, they are embedded in all the decisions that these teachers make.The take home here therefore is that justice be done for local languages to live alongside the English practices through multilingual education approaches.This will be a proffer to balance the linguistic ecological discrepancy in the global biodiversity.

Table 1 .
Opinion about English being best taught monolingually

Table 2 .
Opinion about the ideal teacher being an English native speaker

Table 3 .
Opinion about better results when English is taught earlier

Table 4 .
Opinion about standard of English dropping if other languages are used much

v
We have informed VC about the theft on campus last week v Bible says we should love each other v Be careful, if not you will broke that bottle v I have ran until, because the rain wanted to fall v There are ten institutions in The University of Bamenda v Hello Jemima, how are you?No, I am fine.During a die-place or cry-die, just like during a bornhouse there is always much white mimbo (white stuff, matango etc), achu with canda and water fufu and eru.There is equally much corn chaff made with red oil.vMany people in Cameroon today like achu-banana porridge.
v My younger ones that they are all in college v This course now like this is very difficult v That girl has picked the nail ( i.e. has contracted AIDS) v Do not forget that tomorrow is country Sunday (i.e.civil disobedience or ghost towns day)

Table 5 .
Opinion about better results if English is taught more

Table 6 .
Opinion about English being rich, providential, interesting and noble

Table 7 .
Opinion about English being well established (with many speakers, trained teachers, good teaching materials)

Table 7
indicates that barely 38.88% of English language teacher in Cameroon do not trust the claim that English is well established; implying that it has many speakers, trained teachers, good teaching materials.This is party lining with half truths.

Table 8 .
Opinion about English being for modernity and a gateway to the world

Table 9 .
Opinion about English having the status as a symbol for material advancement and technological efficiency