La langue française et le peuple Akan du Ghana: un cas

Many countries have embraced the necessity to produce graduates with a fluency in more than one language in order to compete in the global economy. With globalization, knowing more than one language is no longer a choice but a requirement for businesses in today's global economy, and this provides many employment opportunities. Ghana has also recognised the importance of mastering other foreign languages including French in order to develop the human capital that drives the economy, as the country is surrounded by French speaking countries namely: Togo, Cote d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso. Nevertheless, the teaching/learning of the French language in the country poses certain challenges. One of which is the lack of interest in learning the language. This thesis therefore aims to identify the challenges Ghanaian students face in their study of the French language, which make them show less interest in the learning of the language, to instigate the causes of these challenges, and to propose solutions as well as new directions and innovations that will help change these students' attitudes about the importance of foreign language learning. The data for the study was collected from Akan third-year secondary school students and their teachers in form of questionnaires and interviews respectively. Our results validated the assumptions that the students’ geographical location, their mother tongue and their teachers’ way of teaching all have some negative effect on their study of the French language. In addition, the fact that most of these students are forced to learn the French language is precisely what makes them lose interest in it. Moreover, these students do not know the importance of the language to them and to the country at large, hence they display some lackadaisical behavior towards learning the language. All these things combined constitute what hinders the Akan students’ learning of the French language.