Contextual Complexities and Second Language Acquisition in Cameroon

The complexity of the linguistic environment in Cameroon raises the question of context and its role in the acquisition of another language. While examining progress in English language learning in Cameroon, this chapter draws a dichotomy between learners in such contexts considered rural and those regarded as urban or cosmopolitan with its inherent complexities. Using the irregular verb as a yardstick, an evaluation of the acquisition of irregular verb patterns by 80 final year primary school learners from two contexts in the Northwest Region of Cameroon serves as a guide. Oral and written tests are used to check learners’ acquisition of verb inflectional categories, verb tenses and general written and oral productions within the mixed method design. The findings reveal similar trends in the acquisition of inflectional categories and verb tenses by learners in both contexts and divergent trends in general oral and written productions. For instance, learners in both contexts exhibit similar challenges using the Vs, Ved and Ven inflections with a very low average frequency of 26% and with a high frequency of 67.2% for the Ving and Vo inflections. Though learners in the urban centres have higher degrees of efficiency in oral productions, their counterparts in the rural areas exhibit more challenges in verbal as against written productions. The chapter concludes that second language acquisition is not a consequence of a unilateral context but a result of a plethora of other factors both within and without the learning environment with evident pedagogic implications for stakeholders in the second language acquisition industry. While context is noted to have impending implications in language learning as highlighted in the chapter, the finality of SLA is also dependent on other linguistic factors like innate capabilities inherent in all learners.