LANGUAGE CHOICE IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS: THE CASE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MAROUA, CAMEROON

Rigobert Hinmassia, Michael Etuge Apuge

Abstract


This study sets out to investigate language choice in a public setting. The study intends to scrutinize the factors accounting for the choice of some language users at the University of Maroua, i.e., to choose any other languages different from the two official languages. To do this, a random sampling of 250 participants was used. The instrument used is a questionnaire with a purely sociolinguistic undertone. Spolsky’s (2009) Language Management backed up the study as the frame. At the end of the analyses, it has been shown that students, the teaching staff (involving some university administrators), and the support staff have some positive and negative attitudes following the language choices made in relation to where the communication takes place as well as the language situations such as enabling mutual intelligibility, social inclusion/exclusion, intimacy and showing identity, solidarity, and work coordination.

 

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language choice, multilingualism, official public setting, University of Maroua

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejlll.v7i3.472

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