LANGUAGE CHOICE IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS: THE CASE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MAROUA, CAMEROON

Authors

  • Rigobert Hinmassia Faculty of Arts, Letters and Social Sciences, University of Maroua, Cameroon
  • Michael Etuge Apuge Faculty of Arts, Letters and Social Sciences, University of Maroua, Cameroon

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46827/ejlll.v7i3.472

Keywords:

language choice, multilingualism, official public setting, University of Maroua

Abstract

This study sets out to investigate language choice in a public setting. The study intends to scrutinize the factors accounting for the choice of some language users at the University of Maroua, i.e., to choose any other languages different from the two official languages. To do this, a random sampling of 250 participants was used. The instrument used is a questionnaire with a purely sociolinguistic undertone. Spolsky’s (2009) Language Management backed up the study as the frame. At the end of the analyses, it has been shown that students, the teaching staff (involving some university administrators), and the support staff have some positive and negative attitudes following the language choices made in relation to where the communication takes place as well as the language situations such as enabling mutual intelligibility, social inclusion/exclusion, intimacy and showing identity, solidarity, and work coordination.

 

Author Biographies

  • Rigobert Hinmassia, Faculty of Arts, Letters and Social Sciences, University of Maroua, Cameroon

    Rigobert Hinmassia is a PhD candidate at the Facuty of Arts, Letters and Social Sciences of the University of Maroua, Cameroon. He is specialized in English Language, especially concerned by Sociolinguistics and Grammar. He is a part-time Lecturer at the same University. links to academic networks (Orcid, ResearchGate, Academia.edu, Wiley (Journal of Sociolinguistics), Degruyter (sociolinguistica), institutional webpages etc(http://www.univ-maroua.cm)

  • Michael Etuge Apuge, Faculty of Arts, Letters and Social Sciences, University of Maroua, Cameroon

    Michael Etuge Apuge is a Full professor of Linguistics and he is specialized in Syntax. He is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Letters and Social Sciences of the University of Buea, Cameroon.

References

Baimada, Gigla François (2010). Languaging Through Religion: Kanuri, Fulfulde, Wandala, Arab Shuwa, and Islam in Northern Cameroon. Kaliao 12(3).

Ferguson, C. A. (1959). Diglossia. Word, 15, 325–40. In Giglioli (1972) and Hymes (1964a).

Kouega, Jean-Paul (2008a). Language, Religion, and Cosmopolitanism: Language use in the Catholic Church in Yaoundé, Cameroon. International Journal of Multilingualism 5(2): 140-223. doi: 10.2167/ijm090.0

Fishman, J. A. (1972). Domains and the relationship between micro-and macro- sociolinguistics. In J. J. Gumperz & D. Hymes (Eds.) Directions in sociolinguistics: The ethnography of communication. Oxford : Basil Blackwell.

Fishman, J. (1965). Who speaks what language to whom and when? Linguistics, 2, 67, 88.

Fishman, J. A. (1964). Language maintenance and language shift as a field of inquiry. Linguistics, 9, 32-70.

Kouega, Jean-Paul (2008). Language, religion, and cosmopolitanism: Language use in the catholic church in Yaounde, Cameroon. International Journal of Multilingualism, 5(2), 140–223.

Kouega, Jean-Paul & Antoine Willy Ndzotom Mbakop (2012). Multilingualism in Religious Settings in Cameroon: The Case of the UEBC Espérance Parish in Yaoundé. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 218: 121–140.

Kouega, Jean-Paul & Gigla François Baimada (2012). Language Use in the Islamic Faith in Cameroon: The Case of a Mosque in the City of Maroua. Journal of Language and Culture 3(1): 10–19.

Kouega, J.-P., & Ndzotom Mbakop, A. W. (2012). Multilingualism in religious settings in Cameroon: The case of the UEBC-Esperance parish in Yaoundé. The International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 218, 121–143.

Kouega, J. -P. & Emalieu, C. S. (2013). Language choice in multilingual socio-religious settings in southwest Cameroon. World Englishes, 32(3), 403–416.

Kouega, Jean-Paul, & Antoine Willy Ndzotom Mbakop (2011a). Multilingual Practices in Presbyterian Churches in Cameroon. International Journal of Innovative Interdisciplinary Research 1: 44–58.

Kouega, Jean-Paul, & Antoine Willy Ndzotom Mbakop (2011b). Language Use in Multi-Ethnic Christian Congregations: The Case of the Evangelical Church of Cameroon. Annals of the Faculty of Arts, Letters and Social Sciences, University of Yaoundé 1 13(1): 67–86.

Ndzotom Mbakop, Antoine Willy, & Ndada, A. K. (2019). Multilingualism, beliefs about language, and language use in the family. International Journal of Multilingualism. Routledge. Accessed and retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rmjm20 on 10 July 2021

Ndzotom Mbakop, Antoine Willy (2016). Language choice in multilingual religious settings: The historical factor. Pragmatics and Society, 7(3), 413–435.

Omoniyi, T. (2006). Societal multiculturalism and multifaithism: a sociology of language and religion perspective. In T. Omoniyi & J.A. Fishman (Eds), Explorations in the sociology of language and religion. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 121-40.

Romaine, S. (1994). Language in Society. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Spolsky, B. (2004). Language policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Spolsky, B. (2009). Towards a Theory of Language Management. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wardhaugh, R. (2006). An introduction to sociolinguistics. (5th ed.). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

Downloads

Published

2023-10-03

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 3 (2023)

Section

Articles