Language policy and language planning in morocco (original) (raw)
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Language Policy and Planning in Morocco: A Critical Approach. . Benmamoun.E; Bassiouney, R (eds.).
The Routledge Handbook of Arabic Linguistics, 2018
This contribution is a critical sociolinguistic overview of language policy in Morocco. For this purpose, I will analyze the language policy model implemented by the Moroccan state since independence. I will also present the evolution of Moroccan language policy since 2000, and how this evolution has created a dynamic of change in the linguistic market. Looking at LPP from a critical perspective, I will try to analyze some new categories introduced into a new agenda concerning the analysis of language policy in Morocco. This analysis will be focused on two aspects: firstly, I will examine how a new sociopolitical context, which has emerged since the Arab Spring, has introduced a new power relationship between the languages used in Morocco, as seen in new language practices. Thus we observe a new glottopolitical model that resists the Moroccan sociolinguistic regime and its approach to language policy. Secondly, I wish to explore how the new Moroccan economy is currently considered a key element in the emergence of a Moroccan cultural model of communication. In this model, the local languages (Moroccan Arabic and Amazigh) are resourced, valued, and measured in accordance with the process of construction of a new language policy in Morocco. Finally, I will propose a new direction for the study of LPP in Morocco, from an ethnographic sociolinguistic perspective (Duchêne and Heller 2007; McCarty 2011; and Madison 2012).
Language policy and planning in Morocco: a critical approach : A critical approach
Routledge Handbook of Arabic linguistics, 2017
This contribution is a critical sociolinguistic overview of language policy in Morocco. For this purpose, I will analyze the language policy model implemented by the Moroccan state since independence. I will also present the evolution of Moroccan language policy since 2000, and how this evolution has created a dynamic of change in the linguistic market. Looking at LPP from a critical perspective, I will try to analyze some new categories introduced into a new agenda concerning the analysis of language policy in Morocco. This analysis will be focused on two aspects: firstly, I will examine how a new sociopolitical context, which has emerged since the Arab Spring, has introduced a new power relationship between the languages used in Morocco, as seen in new language practices. Thus we observe a new glottopolitical model that resists the Moroccan sociolinguistic regime and its approach to language policy. Secondly, I wish to explore how the new Moroccan economy is currently considered a key element in the emergence of a Moroccan cultural model of communication. In this model, the local languages (Moroccan Arabic and Amazigh) are resourced, valued, and measured in accordance with the process of construction of a new language policy in Morocco. Finally, I will propose a new direction for the study of LPP in Morocco, from an ethnographic sociolinguistic perspective (Duchêne and Heller 2007; McCarty 2011; and Madison 2012).
Any country's choice of the medium of instruction (MOI) reveals a lot about its social, cultural, economic, and political agenda. The question of MOI in North Africa, and more precisely in Morocco, has been a thorny issue since the country's independence in 1956. This article aims at contributing to the debate around which of Morocco's two main languages, French and Modern Standard Arabic, should be chosen as MOI in public schools. The article discusses some of the reasons that led to the recent decision to reinstate French language as a MOI in Morocco's education after decades of Arabization policy. Moreover, the article examines the effects of language planning on the quality of education and the identity debate as conservative Islamist ideologies have begun to play an important role in Morocco's political discourse and cultural debate. In addition, following the recognition of Amazigh language, the paper discusses the sensitive debate concerning Morocco's multilingual and multicultural identity.
On Language Policy in Morocco: A Prestige Planning Approach
La Revue Marocaine de la Pensée Contemporaine, 2020
The present paper addresses the issue of language policy and language planning in Morocco. In particular, it argues that there is a lack of a clear language planning strategy that is based on a sound political, socioeconomic , ideological and academic justification. This problem has resulted in an inconsistent education approach, creating an incompatibility between different levels of education (e.g. high schools vs. universities), social classes (e.g. low class vs. middle/high class) and professional environments (e.g. academia vs. job market). For this reason, we suggest that three elements need to be integrated into any language planning effort. These are Literacy Prestige, Economic Prestige and Academic/Scientific Prestige.
Language Debates and the Changing Context of Educational Policy in Morocco
Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective, 2019
Language is a critical basis of local identity and a vital tool for global communication. In multilingual Morocco, the issue of language instruction has been highly politicized, a factor that has contributed to poor educational practice. This article aims at providing a brief description of Morocco’s linguistic landscape together with the language policies first established in Morocco by the French colonizer. It goes on to further assess the evolution of language education policy and makes recommendations for strengthening Morocco’s multilingualism.
Moroccan language-in-education policies have been conducted in a confused way since the country achieved independence in 1956. While their stated aim was Arabisation, i.e. giving back to the official language – namely, Standard Arabic – the dominant social and institutional roles that it had lost under the French colonisation, their actual outcome was not only the maintenance of a situation of bilingualism (where French is still nowadays the dominant language in a range of key domains, such as business and private sector, and strongly influences media), but also the perpetuation of social inequality. The latter in Morocco consists of a deep social divide between Westernised, French-speaking Moroccans, whose families could afford providing them a better – and often private – education, and “Arabised” Moroccans, i.e. still culturally attached to the traditional Arabic-Islamic heritage, who either went through the low-quality formation of the public school system, or could not even afford attending school, or completing their studies, and thus ended up illiterate. Most usually, the former group forms the national elite, while the latter swells the lines of unemployed graduates or illiterate people, both suffering a high degree of exclusion from social privileges.
The Status of English in Language Policy Models Proposed for the Moroccan Multilingual Context
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2017
This paper suggests a language policy model for Modern Morocco, which can respond to both, the national needs of identity and the demands of Globalization, These two needs are the two major forces that shape the status of the various languages involved in the Moroccan sociolinguistic context, including English. The paper concisely describes how different sociolinguistic phenomenon produced by the ex-colonial powers shape the status of the different languages involved in the Moroccan multilingual context (i.e. language conflict, language competition, language selection and linguistic militantism). It also gives a detailed account of the different approaches and language policy models proposed by various Moroccan intellectuals and linguists in order to face such a de facto multilingualism. Finally, it proposes a multidimensional model that may contribute to reducing tensional relations between the different linguistic varieties cohabiting in Morocco, meeting the requirements of the Moroccan identity, and responding to the needs of modernity, prosperity, science and technology imposed by globalization.
The Status of Mother Tongues and Language Policy in Morocco
The International Journal of Applied Language Studies and Culture, 2020
The linguistic market in Morocco has been characterized by its richness and complexity in that a number of local as well as foreign languages co-exist. Given this multiplicity and diversity in its linguistic landscape, Morocco has opted for Arabization as a language policy in education, its ultimate goal being, as it were, to safeguard and maintain its national identity (Ennaji, 2003). Achieving this goal, however, is far from being without glaring shortcomings. Arabization has, inter alia, marginalized mother tongues, the latter being relegated to daily communication only with a devalued and denigrated status. On this view, the present paper brings to the fore the status of languages in use in Morocco and, more precisely, will bring into focus the impact of Arabization on the status of mother tongues. What is more, the study attempts to shed light on the Moroccans’ attitudes towards their mother tongues. In pursuance of this aim, the study will address the following research questions, principally (i) What is the status of Arabic in Morocco? (ii) What is the nature of Moroccans’ attitudes towards their mother tongues, namely Moroccan Arabic and Moroccan Amazigh? (iii) What is the impact of Arabization on the status of mother tongues in Morocco?
Microplanning and Language Policy in Morocco
Language policy and planning (LPP) has undergone an epistemological turn. Early LPP works approached linguistic diversity as a problem; especially for the newly independent states, but in today's globalized world, multilingualism is the norm. A major issue that characterizes contemporary LPP in Morocco and needs further investigation is the interaction between macropolicies and local practices. Most top down language policies face resistance from speech communities. The purpose of this paper is to illuminate the role of micro-planning and local agents in implementing a workable language policy. The aim is to reduce the gap between LPP research and local practices by using an ethnographic approach. Ruiz orientational model and Spolsky's management theory provide a rich theoretical framework. Micro-planning can translate central policies into local practices.