Cameroon, a Western African coastal country, with a heritage of its history of being a previous colony of both British and French from 1916 to 1960, advocates a bilingual language policy in which English and French bo...Cameroon, a Western African coastal country, with a heritage of its history of being a previous colony of both British and French from 1916 to 1960, advocates a bilingual language policy in which English and French both serve as official languages. Due to the complex multiethnic and multilingual situation in Cameroon, multilingualism is the factual norm for the population. Besides English and French, numerous indigenous languages, especially Cameroon Pidgin English as the most significant lingual Franca of the country, are also widely used. Some demographics and sociolinguistic survey even reveal the evidence that this pidginized variety of English has occupied its indispensable position in almost all the aspects in the Cameroonian social life. Since this variety of English has long been used in the country for over 500 years, it has formed distinctive features in phonology, lexis as well as in grammar. This nativized language is now increasingly accepted as distinctive Cameroonian contributions to the world Englishes. Will the spread of this variety stand in the way of the learning "standard" English, or should this unstandardized variety be discouraged or banned in order to preserve the authenticity of English language? English as an international language teaching thus is confronted with new challenges and pondering about its future.展开更多
Literature suggests,a pidgin is a variety in sociolinguistic terms and Basic Variety is a term that refers to an initial stage of second language acquisition in psycholinguistics or developmental linguistics.This shor...Literature suggests,a pidgin is a variety in sociolinguistic terms and Basic Variety is a term that refers to an initial stage of second language acquisition in psycholinguistics or developmental linguistics.This short essay aims to illustrate the difference and similarity between these two terms through data analysis and see how they could be applied to language teaching.展开更多
This paper seeks to do three things： （1） examine the linguistic situation of Cameroon; （2） identify the language（s） used in education; and （3） discuss whether in the light of the social linguistic evidence, t...This paper seeks to do three things： （1） examine the linguistic situation of Cameroon; （2） identify the language（s） used in education; and （3） discuss whether in the light of the social linguistic evidence, the current choice of language for education （English） is well motivated. The methodology employed is a socio-lin some randomly selected urban centers in Cameroon for example, Buea, Bamenda, Kumba, guistic survey of etc.. The results suggest among other things： （1） that Cameroon is a highly multilingual country with over 280 home languages and （2） that while English is the language for Anglophone education, Pidgin English is actually the predominant language and the first language for most Anglophones. Based on these findings, the author proposes Pidgin English as the choice language for early education in Anglophone Cameroon （the southwest and northwest regions）. Pidgin English is the only language which expresses Cameroonian reality. It is spoken by more than 70% of the population. It is the only language that is not associated with a particular tribe, religion, or with a specific colonial government.展开更多
Pragmatic investigations into Cameroon Pidgin English are rare and works on requests are non-existent.This study sets out to outline the rules that underlie requests in this language and the lexical and structural fea...Pragmatic investigations into Cameroon Pidgin English are rare and works on requests are non-existent.This study sets out to outline the rules that underlie requests in this language and the lexical and structural features that arise from them.The informants were 30 fluent Pidgin English speakers who were found communicating in Pidgin in public settings and who were willing to complete a writing exercise.The instrument used was a collection of ten request fragments that had occurred in natural Pidgin conversation.These informants were asked to compose a possible conversation between two familiar equals in which one of these fragments like"Put the potatoes in the bucket"could fit squarely.The frame adopted for data analysis was Blum-Kulka and Olshtain's 1984 research on requests and apologies,whose aim was to specify the particular pragmatic rules of use for a number of languages including English and German.The analysis revealed that the constituents of a request utterance were the same as the previous researchers had identified.The most frequent request strategy type used was"reference to preparatory conditions"(31.57%of 38 utterances)followed by"hedged performatives"(26.31%).展开更多
This paper focuses on the nativization of English in China,using Pidgin English as a case study to put Chinese English variants under the theoretical framework of eco-linguistics,and put the ecological environment suc...This paper focuses on the nativization of English in China,using Pidgin English as a case study to put Chinese English variants under the theoretical framework of eco-linguistics,and put the ecological environment such as species competition,coexistence and co-evolution,etc.The natural phenomenon is compared with the existence of language phenomenon in the development process of China English represented by Pidgin English.The study found that as the spark of the collision of the two mainstream languages of Chinese and English,the Chinese English varieties play a very important role in the exchange and enrichment of the two languages and cultures.Although academic circles have different attitudes and opinions on Chinese English variants,their existence and development conform to the law of the development of things and are also inevitable in historical development.Blindly ignoring their objective existence will definitely bring adverse effects on the ecological balance of the language.We should face up to the existence of Chinese English variants,comply with the law of language development,and allow it to develop naturally,and make efforts to protect the ecological balance of the world’s languages.展开更多
Chinese Pidgin English is a variety of the English language.It is one product of language contact.It is a blend;in vocabulary,pronunciation and grammar,it is simplified and localized.It is one kind of spoken language ...Chinese Pidgin English is a variety of the English language.It is one product of language contact.It is a blend;in vocabulary,pronunciation and grammar,it is simplified and localized.It is one kind of spoken language without formal rules,but it plays an important part in the evolution of language.展开更多
文摘Cameroon, a Western African coastal country, with a heritage of its history of being a previous colony of both British and French from 1916 to 1960, advocates a bilingual language policy in which English and French both serve as official languages. Due to the complex multiethnic and multilingual situation in Cameroon, multilingualism is the factual norm for the population. Besides English and French, numerous indigenous languages, especially Cameroon Pidgin English as the most significant lingual Franca of the country, are also widely used. Some demographics and sociolinguistic survey even reveal the evidence that this pidginized variety of English has occupied its indispensable position in almost all the aspects in the Cameroonian social life. Since this variety of English has long been used in the country for over 500 years, it has formed distinctive features in phonology, lexis as well as in grammar. This nativized language is now increasingly accepted as distinctive Cameroonian contributions to the world Englishes. Will the spread of this variety stand in the way of the learning "standard" English, or should this unstandardized variety be discouraged or banned in order to preserve the authenticity of English language? English as an international language teaching thus is confronted with new challenges and pondering about its future.
文摘Literature suggests,a pidgin is a variety in sociolinguistic terms and Basic Variety is a term that refers to an initial stage of second language acquisition in psycholinguistics or developmental linguistics.This short essay aims to illustrate the difference and similarity between these two terms through data analysis and see how they could be applied to language teaching.
文摘This paper seeks to do three things： （1） examine the linguistic situation of Cameroon; （2） identify the language（s） used in education; and （3） discuss whether in the light of the social linguistic evidence, the current choice of language for education （English） is well motivated. The methodology employed is a socio-lin some randomly selected urban centers in Cameroon for example, Buea, Bamenda, Kumba, guistic survey of etc.. The results suggest among other things： （1） that Cameroon is a highly multilingual country with over 280 home languages and （2） that while English is the language for Anglophone education, Pidgin English is actually the predominant language and the first language for most Anglophones. Based on these findings, the author proposes Pidgin English as the choice language for early education in Anglophone Cameroon （the southwest and northwest regions）. Pidgin English is the only language which expresses Cameroonian reality. It is spoken by more than 70% of the population. It is the only language that is not associated with a particular tribe, religion, or with a specific colonial government.
文摘Pragmatic investigations into Cameroon Pidgin English are rare and works on requests are non-existent.This study sets out to outline the rules that underlie requests in this language and the lexical and structural features that arise from them.The informants were 30 fluent Pidgin English speakers who were found communicating in Pidgin in public settings and who were willing to complete a writing exercise.The instrument used was a collection of ten request fragments that had occurred in natural Pidgin conversation.These informants were asked to compose a possible conversation between two familiar equals in which one of these fragments like"Put the potatoes in the bucket"could fit squarely.The frame adopted for data analysis was Blum-Kulka and Olshtain's 1984 research on requests and apologies,whose aim was to specify the particular pragmatic rules of use for a number of languages including English and German.The analysis revealed that the constituents of a request utterance were the same as the previous researchers had identified.The most frequent request strategy type used was"reference to preparatory conditions"(31.57%of 38 utterances)followed by"hedged performatives"(26.31%).
文摘This paper focuses on the nativization of English in China,using Pidgin English as a case study to put Chinese English variants under the theoretical framework of eco-linguistics,and put the ecological environment such as species competition,coexistence and co-evolution,etc.The natural phenomenon is compared with the existence of language phenomenon in the development process of China English represented by Pidgin English.The study found that as the spark of the collision of the two mainstream languages of Chinese and English,the Chinese English varieties play a very important role in the exchange and enrichment of the two languages and cultures.Although academic circles have different attitudes and opinions on Chinese English variants,their existence and development conform to the law of the development of things and are also inevitable in historical development.Blindly ignoring their objective existence will definitely bring adverse effects on the ecological balance of the language.We should face up to the existence of Chinese English variants,comply with the law of language development,and allow it to develop naturally,and make efforts to protect the ecological balance of the world’s languages.
文摘Chinese Pidgin English is a variety of the English language.It is one product of language contact.It is a blend;in vocabulary,pronunciation and grammar,it is simplified and localized.It is one kind of spoken language without formal rules,but it plays an important part in the evolution of language.
