The Evolution of English in Benin’s Military and Police Training: A Historical and Pedagogical Perspective

This study examines English training’s evolution in Benin’s security forces, addressing how limited proficiency hampers operational success in multilingual missions. It assesses task-based language teaching (TBLT) effectiveness and proposes enhancements, driven by Benin’s growing regional and international roles. A mixed-methods design collected data from 2020–2023 via archival analysis (1960–2020), interviews with 25 military and police personnel, evaluations of 250 trainees (2018–2022) from Porto-Novo and Cotonou, and operational reports (2013–2022), analyzed using NVivo and SPSS 26 (Richards & Rodgers, 2014; Zhang, 2023) [16, 21]. Findings show pre-2020 proficiency at 40% (army) and 15% (police), rising to 70% and 55% by 2022 with TBLT, yielding 20-25% army and 15% police operational gains, despite incomplete pre-1990 records (Fishman & García, 2010) [8]. Though a U.S.-equipped naval lab exists, the Republican Police lacks a dedicated facility. The study recommends establishing a curriculum mandate for all security forces and a police language lab by 2025, training 50 instructors by 2026, and introducing bilingual logbooks at key border posts.