Academic writing practices in
Cameroon English, culture and
variation
Daniel A. Nkemleke
nkemlekedan@yahoo.com
University of Yaounde I/TU-Chemnitz
TU-Chemnitz, "Culture in
Language: Research in Variation,
Variation in Research", July 2011
Daniel A. Nkemleke
Outline
1. Introduction: language, culture and variation


Linking language and idea of culture
Language practices in different cultures
2. Academic writing as community practice


Conventions, Styles and Community
Critique of a horizontal relationship
3. Academic culture


Two views of culture
Academic writing as cultural practice
4. Theoretical premise


Galtung’s (1981) Intellectual Styles
Kaplan’s (1966/1980) Cultural Thought Patterns
5. Data and methodology
6. Fingings



Grandiloquent style (discoursal and lexical levels)
Textual architecture (from general to specific vs. specific to general)
In-Text strategies (metadiscourse and hedging)
7. Conclusion
8. A word on ICE-Cameroon
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1.
Introduction:
language, culture and variation
1.1 Linking language and idea of culture

The link between culture and language has always been a strong one, with the
understanding that the “spirit” of language exerts a formative influence on its
speakers and writers (German philosopher, Karl Wilhelm von Humboldt, 17671835)

“le style est l’homme même” (style makes a man) (Dournon 1994)

There is a long tradition in world Englishes of investigating “sociolinguistic
realities” and “bilingual creativity” of Outer-Circle and Expanding-Circles societies
(Kachru 1983; Mauranen 1993a)
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language, culture and variation
1.2 Variation of language practices in different cultures

Differences in the ways of speaking prevailing in different societies and
different communities are profound and systematic, and reflect the different
cultural values (Wierzbicka 1990)

Contrastive linguistic studies have explored cross-cultural differences in
thought and writing patterns (Kaplan 1966/1980; Galtung 1981; Clyne 1981,
1987; House 1997 etc.)
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2. Academic writing as community practice
2.1 Conventions, communities and styles
 Academic writing is writing done by students, researchers/scholars, or
simply stated, writing practices in an academic community such as the
university. Such writing should enable community practioners to acquire and
understand knowledge; and manipulate such knowledge in appropriate
styles and conventions in the disciplinary or discourse community
(Bailey & Heritage 2008; Chamot & O’Malley 1994; Schleppegrell 2004)
 Academic English has become increasing conventionalized, developing its
own specific ways of “doing” and “saying” things (Bizzell 1994)
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Academic writing as community practice
2.2 Critique of a horizontal relationship
•
The term “community”, “conventions” and “styles” often placed alongside
prominent qualifiers of ‘discourse’ and ‘practices’ implies homogeneity and
idealization that downplays asymmetrical relationships (cf. Barton & Tusting
2005; Ivanič 1998; Prior 1998, 2003)
•
“Community” is a horizontal metaphor which dominates the sociolinguistic
study of language, and there is the need to include a vertical dimension to
the notion of community (cf. Blommaert 2006)
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3: Academic culture
3.1 Two views of culture
 An “open” view of culture is often identified with the behaviour, the rituals
or ceremonies, the songs, dances, narratives and other cultural artefacts of
individual societies. This is what is implied in phrases like: (1) African
cultural evening, (2) Japanese culture, (3) Turkish culture etc.
 A cognitive view such as the one expressed in Holland & Quinn (1987)
sees culture as “shared presuppositions about the world”. This view defines
culture as knowledge, acquired through membership of a particular
community
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Academic culture
3.2 Are there academic ways of “doing”?
 Sociology of science: academic discourse is both socially situated and
structured as to accomplish rhetorical objectives
 Academic writing is a set of rules, regulations, practices, and attitudes on
how texts should be written and presented by
members who participate in that discourse community

If these objectives can be achieved through certain linguistic devices, then
use of those devices constitute ways of writing
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4. Theoretical Premise
4.1 Galtung’s (1981) metaphors in intellectual styles




‘Saxon’: USA/UK
‘Teutonic’: Germany
‘Gallic’: France
‘Nipponic’:Japan

Galtung correlates these styles of sociological thought and writing in
terms of criteria such academic ability to (1) analyze paradigms, (2)
generate hypotheses (or ‘propositions’), (3) form theories, (4) describe
parameters and comment on the work of others
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Theoretical Premise
The ‘Saxon’ intellectual style (English)

Characterized by avid collection and organization of data

Analysis of all sources, concealing nothing

Strong on hypothesis generation, but weak on theory formation

Engaged in dialogue with their peers, less elitist

More tolerant of diversity “objective” statements on language
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Theoretical Premise
The ‘Teutonic’ intellectual style (German)

Focus on fundamental issues of theory formation and deductive reasoning
rather data analysis and induction

Less democratic and strongly elitist, with academic knowledge passing from
‘master’ to ‘apprentice’

Academic debates centres around the weakness of others’ line of argument
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Theoretical Premise
The ‘Nipponic’ intellectual style (Japanese)

Dialectic way of thinking

Little or no theory at all being developed

Never pronounce absolute statements

Underlying figure of theory is a circle

Tolerant and democratic
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Theoretical Premise
The ‘Gallic’ intellectual style (French)

Intellectual activity has at its very center theory formation

Preoccupied with linguistic artistry

Persuasion is carried by elegance

Clarity and elegance of style are as important as theory
formation

Criticism of peers is concealed behind the smoke screen of language
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Theoretical Premise
 The typical question asked when confronted with a
proposition

Saxon: How do you operationize (US version)?
How do you document it (UK version)?

Teutonic: How can you trace this back to basic principles?
(Wie kőnnen Sie das ableiten?)

Nipponic: Who is your master?

Gallic: Can we say this in good French?
(“Peut-on dire cela en bon Français?”)
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Theoretical Premise
Application for a job
 What looks like a Gallic Style
here?
TU-Chemnitz: "Culture in
Language" July 1 - 3, 2011
Sir,
It has been so immense for me and
previlegious [sic] to drop to you this note,
asking for a job opportunity. I wish to table
before you that I would like you to employ me
as a driver in your society.
Sir, my curriculum vitae behind this paper
will brief you on my driving experiences as
well as educational qualifications. Even
though driving is not my priority you could
still employ me as a cleaner, day watch, yard
boy, houseboy, or anything you feel you
could do to help if there is no driving
opportunity there may be other jobs that you
will be convinced could still do.
I am waiting to have a positive response
from you Sir,
Thank you
Yours Sincerely
Daniel A. Nkemleke
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Theoretical Premise
Application for a holiday job
 What looks like a Gallic Style
here?
Sir,
I have the honour and respect to come to you
to apply for help. Please having obtained my
Ordinary and Advanced Level certificates but
now presently in the house without going to
the university because I was not given the
opportunity by my parents for the reason that
they had no money.
I would be very grateful if you would kindly
offer me a job in your company so as to
enable me earn some monies that I may go to
the university.
Sir, your kind consideration would be highly
appreciated.
Your humbly servant
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Theoretical Premise
4.2 Kaplan’s Cultural Thought Patterns (1966/1980)

Kaplan (1966/1980) differences in paragraph structure
English
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Semitic
Oriental
Daniel A. Nkemleke
Romance Russian
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Theoretical Premise
 The relationship between underlying thought patterns and language design
in African and Indian Englishes have been investigated and documented
(see Taiwo 1976; Pandharipande 1983; Y. Kachru 1983)
 Question: Does the following text from the Corpus of Cameroon English
(private letter component) illustrate a style that might be linked to a Thought
Pattern above?
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Theoretical Premise
 Hello Male 1, How is life at the moment? Hope everything is on the good
footing. As you know I will not come down to Yaounde. I may come down if
there should be new presidential elections in March. What I wanted to
inform you is that you should really help me and gather my things for me.
Take my radio cassette from Male2 and my dictionary [R1]. Ask male3 to
give you my notes on constitutional law History and Civil law [R2]. Also go
down with Male4 to our former landlord and collect some of the things there
[R3]. I seriously need those things especially the distributor [R4]. Please I
am really begging on you to gather these things for me [R5]. Some of the
things are in Male6’s house I hope you know the place [R6]. I have along
my travelling bag in which to put some of the things. You can even take
them and keep in Male6’s house and when you see someone coming you
can then give them to the person. The most essential thing is that the things
should be gathered in one place so that I can direct anybody at any moment
to collect them [R7].
Signed.
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Theoretical Premise
4.3 Extrapolating relevant aspects for interpretation of results
 Galtung’s portrayal of Gallic intellectual style as preoccupied with linguistic
artistry is relevant in the interpretation of my results
 E.g. - Flamboyant language or expressive style
- Preference for “big” words
 Kaplan’s characterization of Semitic Thought Patterns as cyclical and
repetitive is relevant in the interpretation of some of the results
 E.g. - Tendency for repetition (as in text above)
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5. Data and methodology
5.1 Data

A corpus of 7 articles of 44,458 words submitted for publication in the
Cameroonian-based journal, Review Syllabus, 2009-2010
(http://ens.cm/spip.php?article337).

A corpus of conference abstracts of 30,405 words submitted for the Younde
International conferences of 2005 and 2006
5.2 Method

Hierarchy of text: which macro-proportions are dependent on which?

Text dynamics: how texts are developed (metadiscourse) and how
propositions are presented (hedging)
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6. Findings
6.1 Grandiloquent style (discoural and lexical)
Text 1. Ba’bila Mutia in Before This Time, Yesterday successfully sublimates
politics into the rigours of art. In the effort to recreate an aesthetic that has
eternal appeal in man’s striving to overthrow what tyrannizes the spirit, the
playwright construes that the erosion of state legitimacy is what might have
compelled the authoritarian, neo-colonial regime to unleash a violent
backlash against the forces that were advocating democratic changes in the
Cameroonian society. Yet, in using theatre as a historical necessity, and
seemingly abstracting from the historical dialectic to inform and authenticate
the depiction of atavistic dysfunctionality, the pathological asymmetries of
modern life are not placed in critical perspective, and character is
consequently sacrificed for artistic pattern. Thus, in the attempt to pursue a
vigorous criticism, the paper questions concepts of mimesis and production
thereby emphasizing the dialectical relationship between the context of
Mutia’s historical drama and its specific content and form. Of course the
place of post-colonial pedagogy (Fanon, Said, Baol, Ngugi) is crucial in that
it clarifies the philosophical underpinning of liberal humanist critical positions
by removing emotive elements in the discourse in order to enable objective
engagements.
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Findings
 Grandiloquent style (discoural and lexical)
Text 2. In analyzing the relativistic conception of the individual with regards to
the larger and apparently homogenous society this paper will contemplate
many questions: are knowledge and morality compatible? Is morality a
subjective or an objective standardization of the mores of society? Can
psychological self-exile help the individual from falling into moral depression
and degeneration? Do the authors under study succeed in fathoming the
moral rightness or wrongness of the situation they handle?
Text 3. It is within this context that this paper charts the argument that to these
authors under study, knowledge instead of having the Promethean
significance of freeing the individual from the chains of existential
constraints, fails to negotiate the construction of their social and moral
identity
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Findings
6.2 Text architecture
 From General to specific about 70%
Text 4. That English is the most spoken language in the world is no longer
subject to any debate. The language has spread its tentacles to almost all
the corners of the globe assuming different functions and statuses. This is
an unprecedented spread has raised a number of concerns prominent
among which is the problem of the model that should be used in each
English-speaking setting. The debate becomes even more serious when it
comes to the question of the model to be used in Non-Native settings like
India and Cameroon. While some researchers think that a native model
should be imposed on Non-native users so as to guarantee international
intelligibility, some of them think that each Non-Native English setting should
use the local model developed there because it serves as a marker of the
speaker’s cultural identity. There is equally a third school of thought which
advocates the establishment of a neutral international model that can serve
both Native and Non-Native users. As this debate goes on, the teacher and
learner of English seem to be facing a serious challenge. This paper aims
to examine this problem from a Non-Native English perspective, with
Cameroon as a case study.
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Findings
 From specific to general (about 23%)
Text 5. This paper aims at charting a number of questions for instance,
whether or not the intrusion of theory into the literary text influences the
reader’s perception of the author’s intention? Does New Historicist readings
of the plays of Butake, Besong, Tanyi-Tang and Nkemngong help in bringing
to the forefront these playwrights or does it on the contrary efface their
historical relevance? If these theories influence the perception of the
meaning of the texts, and vice versa, then is it right to say that theory exists
because the texts does or vice versa? Although this paper attempts a New
Historicist reading of these texts, its overall aim would be to demonstrate
the extent to which literary theory impacts on a deeper understanding of
literary texts. Theory can lead and sometimes does leads to subjective
apprehension of intention. It helps in capturing sometimes-unfathomable
levels of meanings, and authorial reality. Were it is acutely lacking like in our
Cameroonian institutions, the disservice it does to literary interpretation is
enormous. This paper will argue that theory elevates the literary text
from the banality of “all-goes” to more refined and focused
ideological strains.
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Findings
No obvious pattern; just round and round
 Rare but occurs
Text 6. Cameroonian creative writers of English expression have adopted an
imperial language, English, and the novelistic art form to serve the
Cameroonian vision. Like many others, the four novels discussed in this
article (The Disillusioned African (1995) by Francis B. Nyamnjoh, Across the
Mongolo (2004) by J.N. Nkengasong, The Death Certificate (2004) by
Alobwed’Epie and The Deadly Honey (2002) by Eugene J. Kongnyuy are
exploring, dramatizing and exposing the mores, and critiquing the social ills
that plague the Cameroonian/African society; in the process, they are
entertaining, interpreting and educating the very society. The teaching, the
instructional, dimension of this form of imaginative literature resides in the
inspiring lessons drawn from the novels, the moral emerging from them or
the subtle messages delivered by their authors, in a manner peculiar to
literary art, all of this for the benefit of the socially deprived or oppressed.
Herein lies the instructional value of the four texts
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Findings
6.3 Textual strategies
6.3.1 Metadiscourse

Metadiscourse is generally understood as text about the text or discourse
about the on-going discourse (Vande Kopple 1985; Mauranen 1993b;
Rahman 2004)

Metadiscourse is ‘writing about writing, whatever does not refer to the
subject matter being addressed’

Metadiscourse provides a way of talking to the reader and consists of
several categories
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Findings
Some examples of metadiscourse
“connectors” show the organization of the text and make the structure easier
to perceive (e.g. therefore, in the first section, finally)
“code glosses” help the reader to understand intended textual by expanding
on what is said through various ways (e.g. for example, in other words,
namely, for instance)
“directives” direct the reader (e.g. let us, if we consider)
“inclusive pronouns” establishing connections with the reader (we, us, our)
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Findings
Text-organizing metadiscourse
70
60
Freq.
50
Abstracts
40
Articles
30
World Englishes
20
10
th
er
ef
or
ac
e
co
rd
in
g
to
ou
gh
(a
l) t
h
th
us
ho
w
ev
er
fu
rth
er
m
or
e
th
at
is
/i.
e.
as
w
el
la
s
in
ad
di
t io
n
si
m
ila
r ly
0
Forms
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Findings
 Some examples of text-organizing metadiscourse
Cause, concessive
 Traditional African Religions, there is the proliferation of Western religious traditions
amongst which are Christianity and Islam. However, while the Africans accept
religious co-existence as a multicultural reality, African writers on their part, especially
contemporary African playwrights (Absts 05_06.txt)
Means, expectant
 59…of Nigeria. Any extra profits were to be used for the benefit of the people of the
Trust territory (Konings 39). Thus presented, it was clear that the specific concerns of
the Bakweri were not addressed while determining the future of ..(Syllabus 09_10.txt)
Addition, additive (very few cases, why?)
 4 rank highest (17.1%). All these simply imply that most teachers and head teachers
do not have computers in their homes. Furthermore, teachers were asked to indicate
how often they go to their school computer room per week. Responses collected
indicate (Syllabus 09_10.txt)
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Findings
Participant-orie nte d me tadiscourse
Forms
our
World Englishes
us
Articles
Abstracts
we
0
20
40
60
80
100
Freq.
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Findings
 Some examples of participant-oriented metadiscourse
Inclusive first person pronouns
 …30 comes a time when even the most compliant people must rise up in righteous
indignation and declare “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH”. Our silence in the face of persistent
and systematic abuse and misuse of our patrimony by others has been mistaken for
weak (Syllabus 09_10.txt)

…practices basing its focus on the relation between domination, resistance, centre
and margin. This approach helps us to understand the colonial mind and to be able to
see how education can be re-thought in the Caribbean. The paper will (Absts
05_06.txt)

..values and mores into the background. It seems before long, some traditions in
Africa (Cameroon) would be forgotten. We have observed a lacuna of oral literature in
contemporary Cameroonian education, just as a dearth of published works in.. (Absts
05_06.txt)
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Findings
6.3.2 Hedging
•
“Hedges”: interactive elements that serve as a bridge between the
propositional information in the text and the writer’s factual interpretation
 Communicative potential of any language
 Fact:
 This drug will help you recover quickly
 Hedge: (distancing oneself from the statement)
 This drug may/could/might help you recover quickly
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Findings
Four reasons for hedging:
1. Cover-up tactics: hedges as scientific imprecision




tone down one’s statement
reduce risk of opposition
signal distance
minimize the “threat to face
(Kabui 1988; Fand 1989; Salager-Meyer 1994)
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Findings
2. Ways of being more precise in reporting results : hedges as
representation of writer’s true state of knowledge

they may be used to negotiate an accurate representation of the state of
knowledge under discussion
 (genuine uncertainty)
 writer purposefully chooses to remain vague
 (purposeful obfuscation or real lack of confidence)
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Findings
3. Positive or negative politeness startegies


present claims pending acceptance by the academic community
to deny claims presented by others
4. Conventionalized writing style

“a certain degree of hedging has become conventionalized, i.e. the function
of hedges is not necessarily to avoid face-threatening acts, but simply to
conform to an established writing stale. A totally un-hedged style would not
be considered serious by journal editors” (Bank 1994)
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Findings
Modals
would
could
Forms
World Englishes
Articles
Abstracts
might
may
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Frequency
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Findings
Epistemic adverbs
possibly
certainly
Forms
World Englishes
Articles
Abstracts
probably
usually
0
5
10
15
20
Frequency
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Findings
Epistemic adjectives
certain
probable
Forms
evident
World Englishes
obvious
Articles
Abstracts
sure
likely
possible
0
5
10
15
20
25
Frequency
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Findings
Evidential verbs
Forms
appear(s)
World Englishes
tend(s)
Articles
Abstracts
seem(s)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Frequency
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Findings
Judgement verbs
indicate(s)
World Englishes
Forms suggest(s)
Articles
Abstracts
think
10
20
30
40
Freq.
0
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Findings
Recapitulating hedging features
Overal hedges devices
300
Absolute Freq.
250
200
Abs tracts
150
Articles
World Englis hes
100
50
0
Modals
Epis tem ic
adverbs
Epis tem ic
adjectives
Evidential Judgem ent
verbs
verbs
Forms
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Findings
 The bigger picture of hedging from other Cameroon English texts academic
(Nkemleke forthcoming)
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7. Conclusion
Last word about academic writing in Cameroon English

How much of “culture”/” and/or specificity” is involved?

How much of THIS may be attributed to the role of instruction?
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8. A word about ICE-CAM (2008-?)
Aim: ICE-CAM is intended to be a Cameroonian component of the
International Corpus of English Project


University of Yaounde I/TU-Chemnitz joint venture, started Feb. 2008
Funded by Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
Preliminary results:
 Written (Goal: 400,000 words envisaged, collected: 660,000 words)
 Spoken (Goal: 100,000 words envisaged, transcribed: 67,000 words)
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Composition of ICE-CAM (written)
Students’ Essays
150,000
Skills and Hobbies
66,300
Examination Scripts
45,900
Editorials
28,800
Social Letters
77,700
Novels
66,800
Business Letters
11,400
Humanities (Academic)
68,000
Humanities (Popular)
53,700
Social Sciences (Academic)
65,000
Social Sciences (Popular)
40,000
Natural Science (Academic)
20,700
Natural Science (Popular)
?
Technology (Popular)
15,000
Administrative writing
65,000
TU-Chemnitz: "Culture in
Language" July 1 - 3, 2011
Technology (Academic)
Press Reports
Daniel A. Nkemleke
?
32,900
46
Composition of ICE-CAM (spoken)
Conversations
(Private)
Collected
Broadcast Interviews (Public)
Collected
Legal cross Examination (Public)
------------
Class Lessons (Public)
Collected
Broadcast Discussion (Public)
Collected
Commentaries (Unscripted)
Collected
Unscripted Speech (Unscripted)
-----------
Demonstrations (Unscripted)
-----------
Legal presentations (Unscripted)
-----------
Broadcast News (Scripted)
Collected
Broadcast Talks (Scripted)
Collected
Religions Sermons
26,000 words transcribed
Dissertation Defence
41,000 Words transcribed
TU-Chemnitz: "Culture in
Language" July 1 - 3, 2011
Daniel A. Nkemleke
47
Existing corpus of Cameroon English (1992-1994)
No.
Text category
A
Official Press (OP)
183
250,000
B
Students‘ Essays (SE)
116
130,760
C
Miscellaneous (MI)
32
122,569
D
Novels & Short stories (NS)
21
104,458
E
Private Press (PP)
50
48,362
F
Gov‘t Memo (GM)
14
89,707
G
Private letters (PL)
222
84,362
H
Tourism (TR)
8
45,203
I
Religion (RE)
121
30,854
J
Official Letters (OL)
44
25,647
K
Advertisement (AD)
10
19,562
821
900,000
Total
TU-Chemnitz: "Culture in
Language" July 1 - 3, 2011
No. Of
texts
No. Of words
Daniel A. Nkemleke
48
END
Academic writing practices in
Cameroon English, culture and
variation
Daniel A. Nkemleke
nkemlekedan@yahoo.com
Office: Reichenhainer 39/018
TU-Chemnitz: "Culture in
Language" July 1 - 3, 2011
Daniel A. Nkemleke
49
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