The Benefits of French-English Bilingual Competence in Cameroon

摘要

Cameroon is said to be an officially French-English bilingual country. This paper explores the possible benefits of French-English bilingual competence to the individual working citizen in the country. The data are the returns of a 16-item questionnaire devised to check the possible advantages that working Cameroonian French-English bilinguals have and that “officially monolingual” workers do not. The informants are some 408 competent French-English bilinguals working in both the public and private sectors in the city of Yaounde and a few other towns. The findings revealed that, compared to “officially monolin gual” workers, “officially bilingual” workers have no advantage in entering the labour market, in salary increase, in being promoted within a job or receiving any distinction in the work place. The paper establishes that bilingualism has no labour market value in Cameroon and that this policy is a mere slogan, no one caring about its implementation. As a result, the bulk of the working force of the nation has remained officially monolingual over the years. With the advent of globalisation, there is a reversal of the situation. Francophone parents have understood that English language skills are likely to give their children a critical advantage in the global marketplace. To prepare for it, a greater number of urban francophone parents are registering their children in English-medium schools where these children acquire formal English in the classroom and oral/informal French around school premises and in the neighbourhood.