Consequences of Fonlon's Individual Bilingualism Policy

By Jikong Stephen Yeriwa, Ph.D - University of Yaounde I, Department of English

Culled from "Official Bilingualism in Cameroon: A Double-edged Sword" in Revue ALIZES N°19

Implementation of the Bilingual Policy

When the Cameroon government adopted the bilingual policy, language experts elaborated the implementation principles. Professor Fonlon was one of the experts. According to him the bilingual policy enshrined in the constitution of 1st September, 1961, placed Cameroon among other bilingual countries in the world, like Canada and Belgium. He pointed out that though these countries adopted the bilingual policy a long time ago, not all Canadians speak English and French, nor all Belgians French and Dutch (or the Belgian variety of Dutch), but he went ahead to suggest that Cameroon should be different:

La grande majorité des Canadiens et des Belges sont restés monolingues. Un État bilingue ne suppose donc pas nécessairement des individus, des citoyens bilingues. Mais pour nous, au Cameroun, ce serait une méconnaissance des avantages qui s’offrent à nous et un manque regrettable d’idéal que de nous contenter d’avoir créé un État bilingue.

L’objectif que nous devons viser doit être un bilinguisme individuel grâce auquel chaque enfant qui suit le cycle de notre système d’éducation sera capable de parler l’anglais et le français.

This is the recommendation that has governed the bilingual policy in Cameroon since independence. He then outlined the educational system from primary school, secondary school, and high school to University. According to him English and French should be taught at the various levels in such a way that after high school studies the students should be able to follow courses in English and French at the University level. However, he was aware of the difficulties that young Cameroonians will face as they follow his prescriptions but he still insisted on individual bilingualism:

Normalement une université bilingue est une université dans laquelle un étudiant peut suivre des cours dans chacune des langues à son gré. C’est en fait une double université comme c’est le cas de l’université de Louvain où le néerlandais et le français sont les deux langues d’enseignement.

He watered down this appropriate type of true bilingual university with an argument which was outside language planning but in the domain of policy implementers:

J’imagine qu’une telle université est très coûteuse à établir. Le grand avantage du système bilingue que je préconise plus haut est qu’il rend ce type d’université inutile.

Because of economic considerations which lay beyond language planning, the inappropriate language policy in higher education was recommended and over the years it has made numerous victims in the educational process.

The bilingual policy Professor Fonlon recommended for Cameroonians was based on students who had completed high school studies, leaving out the majority of Cameroonians who were never going to follow the same programme. But the practice of bilingualism in Cameroon is based on individual bilingualism where everybody is involved with the consequences that are obvious. The educational programme to form bilingual Cameroonians has so far produced limited results.

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A careful analysis of Professor Fonlon’s principle of individual and early bilingualism reveals that it was based on the quest for National Integration and Economic Considerations rather than on the principle of non-competitiveness between official languages in a nation based on careful and conscious language planning. According to Baker, bilingual education takes several parameters into consideration. He says:

Bilingual education, whatever form it takes, cannot be properly understood unless it is connected to basic philosophies and politics in society. Bilingual education does not just reflect curriculum decisions. Rather, bilingual education is surrounded and underpinned by basic beliefs about minority languages, minority cultures, in-migrants, equality of opportunity, the rights of individuals and the rights of language minority groups, assimilation and integration, desegregation and discrimination, pluralism and multiculturalism.

This approach to bilingual education can be more explicit if the philosophies of equal opportunity and the rights of individuals are analysed. The reality underlying these philosophies is that in selecting the languages of education in a multilingual society the selection should be guided by the fact that every member of the society has his inalienable rights to the choice of his own language. As Baker puts it:

Just as there are individual rights in choice of religion, so it is argued, there should be an individual right to choice of language. Just as there are attempts to eradicate discrimination based on colour and creed, so people within this orientation argue that language prejudice and discrimination need to be eradicated in a democratic society. (249)

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As has been pointed out above, the implementation of the bilingual policy in Cameroon as individual bilingualism instead of state bilingualism has given room for bitterness in communication at various levels among Cameroonians.

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Just as the individual bilingual policy is a hindrance to knowledge acquisition, it is also a hindrance to the admission of candidates to institutions of higher learning or to professions. In this case, questions are set in one official language and translated into the other one poorly or they are not translated at all.

...

To read the entire article click here:

http://www2.univ-reunion.fr/~ageof/text/74c21e88-308.html

Comments

[ftroit]

This is a very interesting piece from Jikong,Phd. You should read the entire article. I however believe that Dr. Fonlon's plan on bilingualism, that is on getting every Cameroonian to speak both languages was ambitious and in the right direction. It's a matter of misimplementation by the state of Cameroon. Dr. Fonlon's method of implementing bilinguaglism in Cameroon wasn't only to be practiced at the university leve. I remember that College Bilingue d'Application in Yaounde (CBA) (that i believe he also helped create) used to be a prototype epitome of a bilingual secondary school. In CBA most subjects were taught in both the English and the French languages. For instance I remember that "anglophone" students studied subjects including Geography, History in French. This was tedious but it paid off, at least to those who studied in such an environment. Most students who graduated from this school during this period are one of the most bilingual Cameroonians around. This plan was abandoned by the goverment (may be because it was expensive). In my opinion, this system should have been implanted to other schools. Unlike adults, young people pick up a foreign language easily and secondary school seems to be just the right place.

[carole Leuwe]

I do believe bilingualism is a reality in Cameroon.There are lot's f people including myself who speak and write fluently both languages includig myself.I use both languages daily and currently.The biggest problems lies on the educational system which barely helps us learning correctly these languages.
Most of cameroonians who speak these languages have made a tour out of cameroon for one reason or the other.It is on coming back that they chose for the most to continue with them.
I will like to proove of my bilingualism ,but I have no direct access to persons who might need me for one reason or the other or why not represent cameroon so far as bilingualism is concerned.
One thing remains for sure, there is no perfect bilingual person.There is always a dominance in one languaga either through speaking or writing.
I was pleased to read your article. Accept my heartfelt greetings.
Carole Leuwe from Bafoussam.

[myriam]

thanks God!

[melanie s]

i am impressed and glad to find all the informations you have put on the net .for a student that i am it is of great importance to be able to have such information because i have a better understanding of the society in which i am call to leave every day.

[James Zeh]

I'm glad to read Jikong's article and the comments made.

Although Fonlon's language policy model had the best of intentions, I note that it was underpinned by goals of national unity and national integration without any consideration for God's gifts (teaching, languages, interpretation, etc). Expecting every Cameroonian to be bilingual is like expecting every Cameroonian to be a genius in Mathematics.

Hence, the model falls short of fundamental human rights such as equal opportunity and the freedom of choice. Also, if all Cameroonians become bilingual it will be unnecessary to continue using two official languages because there are other economic considerations for the country. The choice of a common language will surely be French, thus cheating the anglophone Cameroonian. Fonlon's model seems ambitious in much the same manner as Tadadjeu's extensive trilingualism and Tabi Manga's quadrilingualism, with both scholars theorizing as though all people had to learn were languages to the detriment of other subject fields; While this could be good for those with career prospects in languages, it shouldn't be generalized.