Similar syllabuses - Different didactics and different results

Sammanfattning: This study focuses on how the syllabuses of English and didactics of English as a ForeignLanguage impact the performance of 13-15 year - old students in Sweden and Cameroon. Theexecution of English lessons was observed and the syllabuses for English of both countrieswere compared. Further, the teachers were given questionnaires on their educationalbackground and teaching methods. The students’ general performance in English wasestimated from their performance in different language skills. I constructed a test forexamining the students’ performance in writing, reading, speaking and listening. In thegeneral performance of English, the students in one Swedish school reached better resultsthan the students in the other three schools. In the Writing test, no school had a high scoringprofile but most students reached the lowest pass grade or failed. In the Reading test, thestudents of one school in Sweden and one in Cameroon performed better than the students ofthe other schools. In the Speaking test, the Swedish students performed better than theCameroonian students. The students in one Swedish school performed better in the Listeningtest than the students in the other schools. There are several explanations for the differences inthe performance of English between Swedish and Francophone Cameroonian students such asthat the Cameroonian classes are about twice as large as the Swedish classes, the lack ofresources to provide extra support for the students (e.g. internet, computers, books), and agreat difference in the execution of the syllabuses. The gap that exists between the syllabus ofEnglish and its execution in some Francophone Cameroonian classrooms makes one assumethat making a pass in the BEPC examination contradicts the syllabus of English for theFrancophone Cameroonian Secondary school. The results suggest that there are differencesbetween schools; nationally as well as internationally, and that it is more common thatSwedish teachers follow the syllabus for English than the Cameroonian teachers do. Inaddition, one aspect of particular importance for Cameroon pointed out by this study is thehold of pidgin on the Cameroonian society. It makes it difficult for the FrancophoneCameroonian learners of English to develop in their English competence and makes theeducation process difficult also for the teachers, the school administration as well as the state.