Abstract
Observation of early childhood education in Cameroon reveals that children on their first day at school have not acquired sufficient oral competence in their L1. They go to school at the age of two when the language acquisition phase is still in its initial stages. The result is systematic separation of the child from the family. Among educated and working families, this separation becomes almost total and communication significantly reduces between parents and their children who are either under the care of the school mistress or that of the caretaker. This has a serious effect on the development of oral communication competencies as an essential phase in language acquisition and learning. In this paper, I examine oral competence in the classroom as an important phase in the successful development of children’s reading and writing skills. Based on the Cameroonian situation, I argue that efficient mother tongue-based bilingual education must consider oracy as a primary link in overall literacy achievement in the classroom. Oracy is presented to have significant cultural, cognitive and pedagogic implications. Accordingly, programmes for the training of trainers should systematically integrate oral mother tongue teaching at all levels for better and improved levels of sustained literacy skills.
Highlights
One of the most outstanding features of the Cameroonian classroom today is the ages of the learners
Advocacy for mother tongue-based bilingual education presupposes that children have acquired sufficient levels of oracy in their mother tongues (L1) before being initiated into the process of reading and writing
Given the new breed of children who get to school without sufficient oral mastery of their mother tongues, one can establish a clear connection between oral L1 instruction and bilingual education
Summary
One of the most outstanding features of the Cameroonian classroom today is the ages of the learners. This has been referred to as the early exit model given that it starts with learning in the mother tongue, it soon transitions into the foreign language On this basis, and given the new breed of children who get to school without sufficient oral mastery of their mother tongues, one can establish a clear connection between oral L1 instruction and bilingual education. Given the minority status of our languages and the fact that minority languages have very limited chances of surviving in the school system, their use at least in the early stages of learning is of utmost importance In this respect, oral instruction of the mother tongue becomes really indispensable. The presence of oral instruction in the early stages of learning does reinforce children’s learning abilities and contributes generally to educational planning and management within the framework of mother tongue-based bilingual education
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