Algerian dialect, a sine qua non to learning standard Arabic

Abstract

There is much concern regarding the linguistic distance between the home language and the school tongue of the Algerian pupil. However, this concern does not appear to filter down into in-service teacher training and so this apparent lack of training may result in a lack of awareness about representing bidialectalism within classroom displays. The paper aims to describe the various teaching activities observed during the Fall semester of 2020 in two different classrooms with two teachers (respectively T1 and T2). The intention is to show how the three learning areas that are covered in grade 1, namely, Numeracy, Literacy, and Life Skills are approached and taught daily in these classrooms with specific reference to the various language activities we observed. The participants included two teachers and students in a primary school named El Arbi-Etbessi situated in Tlemcen. Data was collected using the observation method and questionnaires. The results reveal that obligatory monolingualism causes educational problems for Algerian children and the government on different scales.

Keywords: Arabic; cognitive development; dialect; education; mother-tongue; MSA