Effects of Bilingualism in the Private Higher educational sector in Cameroon during the Post-Colonial Period: Strategies, Challenges and Prospects

Abstract: Official Bilingualism in Cameroon started after its independence in 1961 with the objective of being implemented till the tertiary level. The higher educational reforms of 1993 instituted bilingualism in the higher educational system and the use of English and French in all public and private universities. There is a remark that the practice of bilingualism in the private higher educational sector has been progressively effective even though there exist some challenges. This article aims to examine the outcome of bilingual education in private universities in Cameroon, their teaching-learning methods and approaches of (in) French and English languages in those institutes, their challenges, prospects and way forward towards the promotion of Bilingualism. The study was guided by historical linguistics and psychological approaches, and Gardner’s Motivation theory. The data analysed were elicited through observation and questionnaires administered to 95 students of the private higher institutes and five language teachers; nine administrative staff members were interviewed randomly. The findings reveal that the practice of bilingualism policy is effective in the Institutes of study since, even if some are not bilingual in structure, they make sure that the policy is practised in the classroom during lectures and assessment, in all administrative documents. Yet, the problem lies on the curriculum that is not well defined and specialised to the students’ field of study; and on the lack of many well-trained bilingual lecturers, able to teach partially or fully in the second official language. The article concludes by making some recommendations for the effective implementing official bilingualism in tertiary education in Cameroon.