A Preliminary Study of the Cultural Content of Chinese Curriculum in Cameroon’s Middle Schools

Abstract: Chinese Language is a 90-hour compulsory course for students of the third and fourth grades in Cameroon’s middle schools. The cultural content in the present curriculum focuses mainly on cultural knowledge and the contemporary cultural system of China, completely relegating to the background, the teaching of the culture of the Chinese language itself as well as cultural communication. Cultural elements outlined in the current curriculum are aimed at teaching learners the cultural system of China in a bid to make them learn from China’s development path. They include the understanding of the differences between China’s and Cameroon’s economic models, understanding of the secrets behind China’s development, and how to use traditional Chinese medicine as an example to promote Cameroon's traditional medical healthcare, etc.. Based on the above realities, this article puts forward some suggestions geared at improving the current curriculum. The author believes that the cultural content in the Chinese syllabus in Cameroonian middle schools can be re-adjusted to meet the exigencies of the general syllabus of international Chinese education and its own local needs. Cross-cultural communication and traditional Chinese culture should be incorporated into the Chinese language curriculum in Cameroon because it is one of the linguistic elements that beginners are expected to master in addition to phonetics, grammar and vocabulary.

Key words: Cameroon; elementary stage; teaching of Chinese; curriculum

Nama Didier Dieudonne VOLUME 1 APJHSS.pdf