Chadian Learners’/Users’ Preferred Variety(ies) of English

Gilbert Tagne Safotso,Ndoubangar Tompté

doi:10.5539/ijel.v10n6p410

Abstract

Although French and Arabic are the official languages of Chad, for the past twenty years Chadian learners and users of English have been having a strong interest in the language. Their number in Cameroonian, Nigerian, Ghanaian and Sudanese universities as well as in linguistic centres in N&rsquo;Djamena testifies to this. It can be said that the petrol boom in the country has really changed the attitudes of Chadians towards English. They see in it the language of opening and opportunities. Given that in most major languages there are accents and variants, and most especially with English the lingua franca of the 21st century, it is important to know those learners&rsquo;/users&rsquo; preferred variety (ies). This paper thus aims to know which variety (ies) of English Chadian learners/users prefer to hear or speak. The data was gathered through a questionnaire administered to 106 university students, 97 secondary school learners, 18 English language teachers and 29 workers of other sectors (N = 250). Results show that most Chadian learners/users prefer American or British English and a good percentage of them favour Ghanaian or Cameroon English.

Highlights

When a language develops into dialects and varieties, its various speakers/users begin to question its various accents or varieties
French and Arabic are the official languages of Chad, for the past twenty years Chadian learners and users of English have been having a strong interest in the language
With English which has become the language of globalisation of the 21st century (Gradol, 2000; Johnson, 2005), the situation is even more complex as the vast majority of its learners/users have never been in contact with native speakers of the Inner Circle varieties that provide the target for language training

Summary

Introduction

When a language develops into dialects and varieties, its various speakers/users begin to question its various accents or varieties. With English which has become the language of globalisation of the 21st century (Gradol, 2000; Johnson, 2005), the situation is even more complex as the vast majority of its learners/users have never been in contact with native speakers of the Inner Circle varieties that provide the target for language training. They are rather found in the Outer and Expanding Circles (Kachru, 1988). For the past twenty years, Chadian learners and users of English have been having a strong interest in the language. This paper aims to know which variety (ies) of English Chadian learners/users prefer to hear or speak

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Conclusion