Folk Tale Instructional Strategy and the Development of English Language Speaking Proficiency amongst the French Speaking Student Teachers in Some Bilingual Teacher Training Colleges in Cameroon

There is an increasing necessity to integrate traditional teaching methods in ELT classrooms in order to enhance the development of English language speaking proficiency of student-teachers in Cameroonian teacher training colleges. This study aims to examine the impact of the folk tale instructional strategy on the enhancement of English language speaking proficiency amongst the French speaking student-teachers in some Bilingual Teacher Training Colleges in Cameroon. This research is grounded on the theories of; Second Language Acquisition, Social Constructivism and the theory of critical pedagogy. Survey research design was employed to gather data from a sample population of 260 individuals selected from a broader target population of 725. Two working hypotheses were emitted and data collected from the respondents using a carefully design questionnaire and experimental research design. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. The findings related to all the two research hypotheses indicated that: folk tale narration and dramatisation can significantly provide a safe laboratory for students to sharpen their speaking skills. The study advocates for the incorporation of folk tale narration and dramatisation in ELT classrooms. This approach aims to enable student teachers to achieve fluency while also enhancing their pronunciation, grammatical accuracy and vocabulary usage in authentic real life context.