A preliminary assessment of the implementation of english in high schools in Cameroon with reference to Yaoundé

Abstract

This study, entitled “A Preliminary Assessment of the Implementation of English in High Schools in Cameroon: With Reference to Yaounde”, set out to do a preliminary investigation of the implementation of English Language in High School in the Anglophone subsystem of education in Cameroon. In order to attain this, we sampled the views of some high school students and teachers in three high schools in Yaounde. These schools included Government Bilingual Practicing High School, Yaounde, Government Bilingual High School, Etoug-Ebe and Government Bilingual High School Mendong. The data for the study was collected through the administration of questionnaire given out to students, and an interview administered to teachers. Given that this study was out to assess the views of teachers and students in order to see how students could be more competent in the English language upon graduation from the High School. We used the linguistic and pragmatic competence theory. The analysis of the data got from the questionnaire and interview revealed some findings. For example, with regard to the attitudes towards the implementation of English, we found out that 58.33% of the students are satisfied with the implementation of English in the High School and 80% of teachers had positive attitudes towards the implementation of English. It was also discovered from the responses of both students and teachers that grammar and vocabulary are the most problematic areas in English Language teaching in the High School. These findings led to the conclusion that with conscious effort on the part of both teachers and students, ELT in the High School can be very successful given that the predispose positive attitudes towards the subject.