THE COMPLEXITY OF SOCIOLINGUISTIC SITUATION IN ALGERIA: CASE STUDY OF SUPERIOR SCHOOL OF APPLIED SCIENCES- TLEMCEN

 

Nouzha Yasmina Soulimane-Benhabib

Dr, Superior School of Applied Sciences, Tlemcen-Algeria, bssnydz@yahoo.fr

 

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the sociolinguistic situation in Algeria.  It is known that Algeria is multilingual with different dialects spoken throughout the country. The mother tongue is Arabic (dialectal), the first foreign language is French and the second foreign language is English. Therefore, from the primary school to the baccalaureate, young Algerians study all the modules in Arabic, after getting their baccalaureate exam, and entering the superior school, they study all the modules in French in addition to English which is taught as a compulsory course starting from the first year middle school. Therefore, the sociolinguistic situation in Algeria is considered as very rich and complex.

This investigation takes place in the superior school of applied sciences-Tlemcen, where two groups of forty students participated in this research work. Two steps are followed in this research work, the first step is to collect data under questionnaires and interviews are added to this research work in order to reinforce our research and get fruitful results from the students. The second step is to analyse these data taking into consideration the linguistic background of the students from the primary school to superior school of Applied Sciences.

The results obtained demonstrate that the complexity is reflected in historical causes as for the learning of French as a second language which is due to the long period of French colonialism which lasted 132 years. Others are political as the process of Arabisation which came to the fore after independence. The impact of Arabisation has been significant in some fields such as education. However, in the university studies, as scientific, technical or medical, French remains the main medium of instruction and communication. The third language is English, it is  mostly  used  in  the  formal  classroom  environment  and  there  are  few  opportunities,  other  than  in school,  to  use  it  for  daily  communicative  purposes. Recently, students at the superior school show importance to learn English rather than French as a foreign language which is due to the importance English has in the world and globalisation.

Keywords: Algeria, Foreign languages learning, multilingualism