The complexity of the linguistic environment in Cameroon
raises the question of context and its role in the acquisition of another
language. While examining progress in English language learning in Cameroon,
this chapter draws a dichotomy between learners in such contexts considered
rural and those regarded as urban or cosmopolitan with its inherent
complexities. Using the irregular verb as a yardstick, an evaluation of the
acquisition of irregular verb patterns by 80 final year primary school learners
from two contexts in the Northwest Region of Cameroon serves as a guide. Oral
and written tests are used to check learners’ acquisition of verb inflectional
categories, verb tenses and general written and oral productions within the
mixed method design. The findings reveal similar trends in the acquisition of
inflectional categories and verb tenses by learners in both contexts and
divergent trends in general oral and written productions. For instance,
learners in both contexts exhibit similar challenges using the Vs, Ved and Ven
inflections with a very low average frequency of 26% and with a high frequency
of 67.2% for the Ving and Vo inflections. Though learners in the urban centres
have higher degrees of efficiency in oral productions, their counterparts in
the rural areas exhibit more challenges in verbal as against written
productions. The chapter concludes that second language acquisition is not a
consequence of a unilateral context but a result of a plethora of other factors
both within and without the learning environment with evident pedagogic
implications for stakeholders in the second language acquisition industry.
While context is noted to have impending implications in language learning as
highlighted in the chapter, the finality of SLA is also dependent on other
linguistic factors like innate capabilities inherent in all learners.
Author(s) Details:
Louis Mbibeh,
The University of Bamenda, Cameroon.
Please see the link here: https://stm.bookpi.org/PLLER-V5/article/view/13349
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