Transfering scientific and technological knowledge in Duálá through intersemiotic translation: A case study of primary schools in Wouri Divison

According to the 1996 constitution and the 1998 law on the orientation of education in Cameroon, national languages are ensured a presence in the education system. However, despite experimentation with models such as extensive trilingualism (Tadadjeu, 1997), the trajectory model (Bitjaa kody, 2012) or extensive quadrilingualism (Assoumou, 2005), minority languages are still underused as vehicles for the transmission of knowledge and their presence is generally limited to terminological translation. The main question includes how intersemiotic translation fosters knowledge in science and technology knowledge in the dualà language. Drawing on an interdisciplinary theoretical framework from intersemiotic translation, the history of translation studies, social semiotics and multimodality, it studies the intersemiotic translation processes involved in transmitting western science in an African language. Through interviews, observation and content analysis the author shows that semiotic artefacts supplemented with considerations of multimodality used within the framework of classroom interactions entails intersemiotic translation, and contribute to knowledge transmission in primary schools. This study brings new insights in favour of the introduction of minority languages in Cameroon’s educational system.