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Question tags in Cameroon English
English Today ( IF 1.156 ) Pub Date : 2020-10-08 , DOI: 10.1017/s0266078420000139
Antoine Willy Ndzotom Mbakop

Although English is one of the two official languages in Cameroon, it is seldom used out of official circles where indigenous languages, French, and Pidgin English reign supreme (Jikong & Koenig, 1983). This has made the language a matter of concern for teachers, learners, and researchers. An aspect of the language which has so far been little investigated, but which is significant to English proficiency, is question tags. In fact, question tags contribute tremendously to the flow of language. They are ‘a very conspicuous phenomenon of spoken language’ (Tottie & Hoffman, 2006: 284). These short questions (tags), tagged onto a main statement (the anchor) play an important role in spoken English. While the question tag is taught from Sixième to Terminale (Grade 8 to Grade 13, i.e. the first to last years of secondary education in the Francophone subsystem of education), and from primary to secondary school in the Anglophone subsystem of education in Cameroon, researchers are still to question its teaching against the backdrop of its actual use in a country where the nativisation process of English is generally agreed upon (Schneider, 2009). Also, given that the canonical ‘type of tag question with reversed or constant polarity, (. . .) is typical of English’ (Tottie & Hoffman, 2006: 283), its teaching (textbooks focus solely on question tags with reversed or constant polarity) in a non-native setting like Cameroon is likely to foretell a conscious or unconscious desire to keep a certain standard of English. If one concurs with Schneider (2009) that Cameroon is on Phase Three of the Dynamic model (at least in the Anglophone part of the country) – that is, Nativisation where ‘structural nativization has made substantial progress’ (p. 298) – then keeping a native-like standard on school programmes (Ministry of Secondary Education, 2014), textbooks (see for illustration the English textbook Forbin et al., 2019), and official examinations would be likely to indicate some contradictions as per the apparent desire to cut the umbilical cord with the former colonial power.

中文翻译:

喀麦隆英语中的问题标签

尽管英语是喀麦隆的两种官方语言之一,但它很少在官方圈子之外使用,因为当地语言、法语和洋泾浜英语占主导地位(Jikong & Koenig,1983)。这使得语言成为教师、学习者和研究人员关注的问题。迄今为止很少有人研究但对英语熟练度很重要的语言的一个方面是问题标签。事实上,问题标签极大地促进了语言的流动。它们是“一种非常显着的口语现象”(Tottie & Hoffman, 2006: 284)。这些简短的问题(标签),标记在主要陈述(锚点)上,在英语口语中起着重要作用。虽然问题标签是从锡西梅终端(8年级到13年级,即法语教育子系统中中学教育的第一年到最后一年),以及喀麦隆英语教育子系统中从小学到中学,研究人员仍然对其教学提出质疑它在一个普遍同意英语本土化过程的国家实际使用(Schneider,2009)。此外,鉴于规范的“具有反向或恒定极性的标签问题类型,(...)是典型的英语”(Tottie & Hoffman,2006:283),其教学(教科书仅关注具有反向或恒定极性的问题标签)极性)在喀麦隆这样的非母语环境中可能预示着有意识或无意识地希望保持一定的英语标准。
更新日期:2020-10-08
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