Language Development and Social Uses of Literacy: A Study of Literacy Practices in Cameroonian Minority Language Communities Barbara Trudell SIL International, Africa Area, Nairobi, Kenya In Northwest Cameroon, the emergence of literacy in the mother tongue is providing minority language communities with new alternatives for learning and communica- tion. To some extent, these alternatives are shaped by existing literacy practices in English, as English is the language of formal education. However, new spaces are also emerging in society for the use of literacy in the mother tongue. This paper examines the impact of mother-tongue literacy on attitudes towards, and uses of, written text in the Bafut, Kom and Nso’ language communities of North-west Cameroon. The paper is based on qualitative case study research conducted in these communities in 2002  2003. The paper concludes with a discussion of the future of mother-tongue literacy in the Bafut, Kom and Nso’ language communities. doi: 10.2167/beb384.0 Keywords: Cameroon, language development, literacy, minority language In many minority language communities of sub-Saharan Africa, the relation- ship between uses of literacy and language fluency is an important aspect of community literacy beha viours. The language of literacy is implicated in the forging of local and national identity (Collins & Blot, 2003), and also points to a range of power relations at work in the bilingual community (Hornberger & Skilton-Sylvester, 2000). Not only so, but a society’s uses of literacy are hea vily influenced by its values and social practices (Gee, 1996)  including its language practices. It has also been well established that development of a written form of a minority language is crucial to the maintenance of that language (Bamgbose, 1991; Spolsky, 2004: 189). Examining the literacy practices of multilingual communities thus sheds light on two important phenomena: (1) the relationship between language fluency and the continuum of oral-literate communication preferences; and (2) the impact of literacy in the local language on the development of that language. The examination of these phenomena described in this paper took place in 2002  2003 in the Northwest Province of Cameroon, West Africa. Qualitative methods such as interview, direct observation and document study were used to investigate language choice, literacy and learning practices in three minority language communities. 1367-0050/06/05 625-18 $20.00/0 – 2006 B. Trudell The International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism Vol. 9, No. 5, 2006 625