Aprender y enseñar lenguas extranjeras en un contexto de digitalización: el caso de la Escuela Normal Superior de Yaundé (Camerún)

Abstract

This article deals with the use of mobile devices for the teaching of foreign languages, an increasingly frequent phenomenon both in developing and developed countries. In the current Cameroonian context, and in the Department of Foreign Languages of the Higher Teacher Training College of Yaoundé, we do not have enough didactic materials or adequate equipment for teaching foreign languages through mobile devices. The emergence of the Covid-19 health crisis and the need of carry out distance teaching and learning have highlighted the shortcomings of educational system in this area, and has led us to reflect on the strategies to adopt to remedy this situation. The purpose of this work is to investigate and propose pedagogic strategies in relation with the use of mobile devices and technologies in the processes of teaching and learning foreign languages, in a context where connection to the new communication networks is a luxury. For that, we base our study on some experiences lived in other parts of the world with similar contexts, and suggest that the department of Foreign languages of the Higher Teacher Training College of Yaoundé should take advantage of those strategies and implement them in its context. The methodology adopted in this study is the observation of our environment, and documentary analysis of case studies in countries with contexts similar to ours. To do this, we did a questionnaire addressed to 50 students and 15 teachers from the Department of Foreign Languages. The results of our survey show that both teachers and students adhere to the use of mobile devices in teaching and learning, despite the difficulties related to the context and the insufficiency of adequate means and infrastructures for distance learning.