L’enseignement de la variation phonétique du français au Cameroun : dérives et conséquences en termes d’insécurité linguistique chez les élèves

Abstract

In accordance with the recommendations of the meeting on the teaching of French in french-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa held in 2003, Cameroon has just decided to teach French variation. The objective of this paper is to show that the didactic practices currently used to transmit phonetic variation are likely to install learners in linguistic insecurity. Indeed, insteed of initiating learners to decrypt their interlocutor’s accents for better communication, the practices analyzed seem to focus more on identification and linguistic description. This work will show that these practices tend to more transmit to students stereotypes already known about French accents in Cameroon, which generally aim to axiologically classify speakers, with potentially negative consequences for learners’language security. From a didactic perspective, this paper analyzes the French language Textbook at the second cycle in Cameroon and a lesson given to the students of Terminale (Upper six). This study adopts a qualitative approach.