Literature and TEFL: Towards the reintroduction of literatures in English in the francophone secondary school curriculum in Cameroon

Abstract

Literature was once regarded as being inappropriate for the teaching of the English language. Nowadays, the importance of applying literature in the development of learners’ language skills is receiving a lot of attention by EFL/ESL practitioners worldwide (Lee 2009). In spite of such “remarkable revival of interest in literature" in the English language classroom (Duff & Maley 1990: 3), literature as a component of the English language teaching programme in secondary schools in Cameroon "remains the exception rather than the rule" (Macalister 2008: 248). This paper seeks to examine the impact of the withdrawal of English Literature from the English as a foreign language curriculum of French-speaking Cameroonians. In the article, we statistically compare the performances of Frenchspeaking and English-speaking Cameroonian teacher trainees of the department of Bilingual Studies of the Higher Teachers’ Training College of the University of Maroua in English Literature and in French Literature. We also discuss the importance and effectiveness of the different models and approaches in the development of the cultural competence and communicative skills of learners. The results obtained reveal that the studying of literatures in French by Anglophones at the Advanced Level positively influences their performances in French in Higher Education. The poor performances of Francophone Student-teachers in courses like LBL 11 (Introduction to English Literature) are attributable to the fact that they do not study literatures in English at the secondary school level.