The Language of Official Communiques in Cameroon: Interpretations and Attitudes<br />
<div>
	<br />
</div>

Julius Angwah

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ellc.20230804.13

Research Article |

| Peer-Reviewed

The Language of Official Communiques in Cameroon: Interpretations and Attitudes

Julius Angwah

Published in English Language, Literature & Culture (Volume 8, Issue 4)

Received: 20 September 2023 Accepted: 9 October 2023 Published: 28 October 2023

Views: Downloads:

Download PDF

Share This Article

Twitter
Linked In
Facebook

Abstract

Information is designed to stimulate responses. It should, therefore, be well crafted in terms of codes of communication and contents. In Cameroon, however, though English and French are the two official languages, as stated in Article one Paragraph three of the Constitution of Cameroon, official communiques are sometimes published only in French and this seems to create a feeling of frustration among Cameroonians who do not understand the French language and consequently cannot efficiently react to communiques that may concern them. This study was, therefore, designed to find out the extent to which official communiques in Cameroon are published in English and French, as stated in the constitution of the country. The study also intended to find out the levels of comprehension of French-only communiques and attitudes towards inabilities to decode and react to them. In order to effectively carry out this study, 50 randomly selected communiques from five Government Ministries (10 from each Ministry), published between 2020 and 2023 were considered for analysis. One communique was later randomly selected and used to find out the extent to which the Anglophone informants could interpret French-only communiques. 360 informants (180 Anglophones and 180 Francophones) from the city of Yaounde were sampled as informants for the study. The results revealed that communiques from Cameroon Government Ministries are either published in French or in French and English and this poses a serious problem of comprehension and feeling of frustration among Anglophones who do not understand French.

Published in	English Language, Literature & Culture (Volume 8, Issue 4)
DOI	10.11648/j.ellc.20230804.13
Page(s)	101-107
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Official Communiques, English, French, Interpretations, Attitudes

References

[1]	Aitchison, J. 2000. The Seeds of Speech: Language Origin and Evolution. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[2]	Ayafor, I. 2005. Official Bilingualism in Cameroon: Instrumental or Integrative Policy?
[3]	Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism, ed. James Cohen, Kara T. McAlister, Kellie Rolstad, and Jeff MacSwan, 123-142. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
[4]	Baker, C. 2011. Foundation of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (Vol. 79). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
[5]	Bauman, Z. 1999. Culture as Praxis. London: Sage.
[6]	Bialystok, E. 2001. Bilingualism in Development: Language, Literacy and Cognition. Cambridge University Press.
[7]	Bloomfield, L. 1933. Language. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
[8]	Chumbow, B. S. 1980. “Language and Language Policy in Cameroon” In Kofele-Kale, N. (ed.)
[9]	An Experiment in Nation-building: The Bilingual Cameroon Republic since Reunification. 281-311. Boulder, co: Westview Press.
[10]	De Vito, J. 1982. Communicology: An Introduction to the study of Communication. Second edition. New York: Harper & Row Publishers.
[11]	Fasold, R. 1984. The Sociolinguistics of Society Vol. 1, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
[12]	Goodman, K. 1967. Reading: A Psycholinguistic guessing game. Journal of the Reading Specialist, 6(4), 126-135.
[13]	Hoffmann, C. 1991. Introduction to Bilingualism. London: Longman.
[14]	Loveday, L. 1982. The Sociolinguistics of Learning and Using a Non-native Language. Oxford: Pergamum.
[15]	Matsuumoto, D. and Juang, L. 2003. Culture and Psychology. 3rd edition. Wadsworth Publishing Co Inc.
[16]	Republic of Cameroon. Law No. 2019/019 of 24 December 2019 on the Promotion of Official Languages in Cameroon.
[17]	Republic of Cameroon. 1996. Constitution of the Republic of Cameroon: Adopted on January 1996, Amendment to the Constitution of 2 June 1972.
[18]	Tadadjeu, M. 1983. “Prospects for Language Planning Studies in Cameroon.” In Koenig E. et al. (eds.) A Sociolinguistic Profile of Urban Centers in Cameroon. 117-125. California: Crossroads Press.
[19]	Weinreich, U. 1968 Languages in Contact. The Hague: Mouton.
[20]	United Nations. 2015. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Illustrated edition, created and designed in partnership between the artist, Yacine Ait Kaci (YAK) creator of ElyX, the United Nations Regional Information Centre (UNRIC), and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights – Regional Office for Europe (OHCHR).
[21]	Van Dijk 2006. Discourse and manipulation: Discourse and society. Sage London.Vol. 2. 359-383,
[22]	Vygotsky, L. S. 1978. Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Cite This Article

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Julius Angwah. (2023). The Language of Official Communiques in Cameroon: Interpretations and Attitudes . English Language, Literature & Culture, 8(4), 101-107. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20230804.13

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Julius Angwah. The Language of Official Communiques in Cameroon: Interpretations and Attitudes . Engl. Lang. Lit. Cult. 2023, 8(4), 101-107. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20230804.13

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Julius Angwah. The Language of Official Communiques in Cameroon: Interpretations and Attitudes . Engl Lang Lit Cult. 2023;8(4):101-107. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20230804.13

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ellc.20230804.13,
  author = {Julius Angwah},
  title = {The Language of Official Communiques in Cameroon: Interpretations and Attitudes

	
},
  journal = {English Language, Literature & Culture},
  volume = {8},
  number = {4},
  pages = {101-107},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ellc.20230804.13},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20230804.13},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ellc.20230804.13},
  abstract = {Information is designed to stimulate responses. It should, therefore, be well crafted in terms of codes of communication and contents. In Cameroon, however, though English and French are the two official languages, as stated in Article one Paragraph three of the Constitution of Cameroon, official communiques are sometimes published only in French and this seems to create a feeling of frustration among Cameroonians who do not understand the French language and consequently cannot efficiently react to communiques that may concern them. This study was, therefore, designed to find out the extent to which official communiques in Cameroon are published in English and French, as stated in the constitution of the country. The study also intended to find out the levels of comprehension of French-only communiques and attitudes towards inabilities to decode and react to them. In order to effectively carry out this study, 50 randomly selected communiques from five Government Ministries (10 from each Ministry), published between 2020 and 2023 were considered for analysis. One communique was later randomly selected and used to find out the extent to which the Anglophone informants could interpret French-only communiques. 360 informants (180 Anglophones and 180 Francophones) from the city of Yaounde were sampled as informants for the study. The results revealed that communiques from Cameroon Government Ministries are either published in French or in French and English and this poses a serious problem of comprehension and feeling of frustration among Anglophones who do not understand French.
},
 year = {2023}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Language of Official Communiques in Cameroon: Interpretations and Attitudes

	

AU  - Julius Angwah
Y1  - 2023/10/28
PY  - 2023
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20230804.13
DO  - 10.11648/j.ellc.20230804.13
T2  - English Language, Literature & Culture
JF  - English Language, Literature & Culture
JO  - English Language, Literature & Culture
SP  - 101
EP  - 107
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-2413
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20230804.13
AB  - Information is designed to stimulate responses. It should, therefore, be well crafted in terms of codes of communication and contents. In Cameroon, however, though English and French are the two official languages, as stated in Article one Paragraph three of the Constitution of Cameroon, official communiques are sometimes published only in French and this seems to create a feeling of frustration among Cameroonians who do not understand the French language and consequently cannot efficiently react to communiques that may concern them. This study was, therefore, designed to find out the extent to which official communiques in Cameroon are published in English and French, as stated in the constitution of the country. The study also intended to find out the levels of comprehension of French-only communiques and attitudes towards inabilities to decode and react to them. In order to effectively carry out this study, 50 randomly selected communiques from five Government Ministries (10 from each Ministry), published between 2020 and 2023 were considered for analysis. One communique was later randomly selected and used to find out the extent to which the Anglophone informants could interpret French-only communiques. 360 informants (180 Anglophones and 180 Francophones) from the city of Yaounde were sampled as informants for the study. The results revealed that communiques from Cameroon Government Ministries are either published in French or in French and English and this poses a serious problem of comprehension and feeling of frustration among Anglophones who do not understand French.

VL  - 8
IS  - 4
ER  -

Copy | Download

Author Information

Julius Angwah

Department of English, Higher Teacher Training College, University of Yaounde I, Yaounde, Cameroon

Download PDF

Sections

Plain Text BibTeX RIS

APA Style

Julius Angwah. (2023). The Language of Official Communiques in Cameroon: Interpretations and Attitudes . English Language, Literature & Culture, 8(4), 101-107. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20230804.13

Copy | Download

ACS Style

Julius Angwah. The Language of Official Communiques in Cameroon: Interpretations and Attitudes . Engl. Lang. Lit. Cult. 2023, 8(4), 101-107. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20230804.13

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Julius Angwah. The Language of Official Communiques in Cameroon: Interpretations and Attitudes . Engl Lang Lit Cult. 2023;8(4):101-107. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20230804.13

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ellc.20230804.13,
  author = {Julius Angwah},
  title = {The Language of Official Communiques in Cameroon: Interpretations and Attitudes

	
},
  journal = {English Language, Literature & Culture},
  volume = {8},
  number = {4},
  pages = {101-107},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ellc.20230804.13},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20230804.13},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ellc.20230804.13},
  abstract = {Information is designed to stimulate responses. It should, therefore, be well crafted in terms of codes of communication and contents. In Cameroon, however, though English and French are the two official languages, as stated in Article one Paragraph three of the Constitution of Cameroon, official communiques are sometimes published only in French and this seems to create a feeling of frustration among Cameroonians who do not understand the French language and consequently cannot efficiently react to communiques that may concern them. This study was, therefore, designed to find out the extent to which official communiques in Cameroon are published in English and French, as stated in the constitution of the country. The study also intended to find out the levels of comprehension of French-only communiques and attitudes towards inabilities to decode and react to them. In order to effectively carry out this study, 50 randomly selected communiques from five Government Ministries (10 from each Ministry), published between 2020 and 2023 were considered for analysis. One communique was later randomly selected and used to find out the extent to which the Anglophone informants could interpret French-only communiques. 360 informants (180 Anglophones and 180 Francophones) from the city of Yaounde were sampled as informants for the study. The results revealed that communiques from Cameroon Government Ministries are either published in French or in French and English and this poses a serious problem of comprehension and feeling of frustration among Anglophones who do not understand French.
},
 year = {2023}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - The Language of Official Communiques in Cameroon: Interpretations and Attitudes

	

AU  - Julius Angwah
Y1  - 2023/10/28
PY  - 2023
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20230804.13
DO  - 10.11648/j.ellc.20230804.13
T2  - English Language, Literature & Culture
JF  - English Language, Literature & Culture
JO  - English Language, Literature & Culture
SP  - 101
EP  - 107
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2575-2413
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20230804.13
AB  - Information is designed to stimulate responses. It should, therefore, be well crafted in terms of codes of communication and contents. In Cameroon, however, though English and French are the two official languages, as stated in Article one Paragraph three of the Constitution of Cameroon, official communiques are sometimes published only in French and this seems to create a feeling of frustration among Cameroonians who do not understand the French language and consequently cannot efficiently react to communiques that may concern them. This study was, therefore, designed to find out the extent to which official communiques in Cameroon are published in English and French, as stated in the constitution of the country. The study also intended to find out the levels of comprehension of French-only communiques and attitudes towards inabilities to decode and react to them. In order to effectively carry out this study, 50 randomly selected communiques from five Government Ministries (10 from each Ministry), published between 2020 and 2023 were considered for analysis. One communique was later randomly selected and used to find out the extent to which the Anglophone informants could interpret French-only communiques. 360 informants (180 Anglophones and 180 Francophones) from the city of Yaounde were sampled as informants for the study. The results revealed that communiques from Cameroon Government Ministries are either published in French or in French and English and this poses a serious problem of comprehension and feeling of frustration among Anglophones who do not understand French.

VL  - 8
IS  - 4
ER  -

Copy | Download