Current Issues in Language Planning The question of languages and the medium of instruction in Morocco (original) (raw)
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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.
Language and schooling in Morocco
International Journal of Educational Development, 1987
The prevailing language situation in Morocco is quite complex due to the presence and interference of three Berber dialects, three variant forms of colloquial Arabic, two foreign languages (French and Spanish) and one national language, classical Arabic. This article seeks to examine the educational implications of this multilingualism. For this purpose, a three-step analysis is carried out, involving a summary presentation of the linguistic setting in Morocco, an outline of the language situation in the schooling system and an assessment of the pedagogical impact of these factors. Two main conclusions are reached on the basis of this analysis. First, it appears that the language policy constitutes a major source of wastage in educational terms. Second, there is a close relationship between socio-cultural origin and the vehicles of instruction used at school, which introduces an element of social bias in the educational process.
The geography and history of Morocco have largely determined language policy in the educational systems of this country. Geographically, Morocco is at the crossroads of the Greater Maghreb (Mauritania, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia), Europe, and the rest of the African continent. This fact rendered its frontiers porous, hence, historically, Morocco has been the target of repeated invasions and conquests by Greeks, Phoenicians, Arabs, and more recently Western Europeans. All these civilizations have deeply influenced Morocco and contributed to its linguistic and cultural diversity. This diversity was, in turn, bound to affect language policies in the educational systems of Morocco.
Problems of Arabic-French bilingualism in the Moroccan educational system
Abstract This paper is an attempt to demystify the issue of Arabization as a language planning policy in the Moroccan educational system. The focus is on the transmission and propagation of Arabic via printed documents, such as textbooks and methods of teaching. The adoption of Arabic-French bilingualism in education did not entirely solve the problem as there are different obstacles that still confront students in studying both Arabic and French. From socio-and-applied linguistic perspectives, I have tried to enumerate and examine the difficulties facing Moroccan students in studying both Arabic and French. Those difficulties are mainly concomitant to the complex linguistic map of Morocco, the inefficient and ineffective methods of teaching, the context of teaching as well as the interlingual and intralingual problems. Consequently, Arabic-French bilingualism has been faced with contradictory reactions. It is concluded that both Arabic and French, to different degrees, are relatively lagging behind with respect to the access to scientific and technological information. Besides, paper questions the true intentions of the Francophonie. Keywords: Language planning, Arabic-French bilingualism, Arabization, Francophonie
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.
LANGUAGE CONTACT, ARABIZATION POLICY AND EDUCATION IN MOROCCO
This paper addresses the issue of conflict and rivalry concerning the functions and statuses of the languages used in Morocco, namely Classical/Standard Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, Berber, French, Spanish, and English. Although these languages have not provoked any serious nationalism or linguistic rivalry in this multilingual context, they are emerging as powerful markers and rally-points for group identity and cultural authenticity. The paper aims at exploring (1) the genesis of the conflict, (2) the attitudes toward Arabization and French-Standard Arabic bilingualism and the educational and sociocultural implications. It examines how sociolinguistic phenomena such as language contact and conflict affect the implementation of Arabization in Morocco.