Sociolinguistic Dimensions of Dialect use in the Algerian Education System

Abstract

Algeria is a diglossic community, the existence of MSA as the only means of instruction on one hand and AA, the mother tongue of the Algerian learner on the other, makes the process of learning an arduous one. The paper examines the classroom environment in primary school. It explores the teachers’ awareness, knowledge and understanding of, and attitudes and feelings towards, monolingualism, bidialectalism. The study also briefly considers whether teacher training has amply prepared these teachers for the confrontation of a bidialectal classroom. The data is discussed in terms of education and Second Language Acquisition theory and the Algerian education and language policies. The results of indicate that the teachers have two fundamental suppositions that support their action and classroom construction. (1) a lack of exposure to MSA is the primary cause of language problems for learners, (2) AA, the mother tongue, does not need to be maintained or promoted in the school environment because learners are sufficiently exposed to their L1 in the home.