Language Contact and Language Conflict - DSpace - Université de

117 Pages·2011·0.99 MB·English

People’s Democratic and Republic of Algeria
Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research
University of Abou Bekr Belkaid, Tlemcen
Faculty of Letters and Languages
Department of Foreign Languages
Section of English
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A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN FULFILLMENT OF REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE
OF MAGISTER IN SOCIOLINGUISTICS
Presented by : Supervised by :
Mrs. Linda Chahinez BENYELLES Pr. Smail BENMOUSSAT
Board of Examiners :
Dr. Zoubir, DENDANE (MC) President (University of Tlemcen)
Professor. Smail, BENMOUSSAT Supervisor (University of Tlemcen)
Dr. Ilham, SERIR, (MC) Examiner (University of Tlemcen)
Dr. Zouaoui, MERBOUH (MC) Examiner (University of Sidi-Belabbes)
Dr. Mohammed Nassim, NEGADI (MC) Examiner (University of Tlemcen)
Academic Year: 2010-2011
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like here to acknowledge all the people who
directly or indirectly have helped, encouraged and supported
me. To all of them I express my genuine thanks.
First and foremost, my acknowledgments go to Professor
Smail BEMMOUSSAT who has shared his time, experience,
knowledge with me throughout this dissertation. I thank him
very much for being attentive to my concerns and very patient
in guiding me throughout the entire process.
My gratitude goes to Dr Zoubir DENDANE who supported and
encouraged me in this research study. I thank him for sharing
his research skills and experience. I equally express my
immense and sincere thanks to the jury members: Dr. Ilham
SERIR, Zouaoui MERBOUH and Dr. Nassim NEGADI for their
insightful guidance and advices.
I am also particularly indebted to Professor Mohamed
BENRABAH from the University of Stendhal-Grenoble ⅲ (France),
for his helpful articles and suggestions. I would like also to
thank all the respondents who answered enthusiastically the
questions and shared their time and interest in the language
issue.
I also wish to express my deepest gratitude to my husband
and children who have been part of my trials and tribulations
in love and faith. My thanks also go to my parents, my sisters
and my brothers whose support and assistance have been
extremely important.

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ABSTRACT

Algeria, no doubt is a nation that has witnessed a cross
current of linguistic activities due to it inherent
multilingual nature coupled with her colonial experience under
the French. After attaining independence in 1962, Algeria
started on the one hand to arabise all public sectors,
especially the educational one for ideological reasons related
to national identity and nationalism. From the other hand, it
has maintained French as the language of science and
technology.

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine Language
Contact and Language Conflict between the two mostly used
languages, Arabic and French. And for a better understanding
we have chosen the faculty of Medicine as an appropriate
environment for such investigation.
Data for this survey came from a questionnaires and an
interview distributed in the period of three months to fifty
respondents from the Faculty of Medicine in Tlemcen
University. The sample comprised forty Arabised students and
ten Francophone teachers. The variables used to study these
respondents’attitudes included age, gender, linguistic
competence, language use in various settings as well as
language attitudes towards the codes involved in the study.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………i
Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………ⅱ
Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………ⅲ
List of Tables ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………ⅵ
List of Illustrations…………………………………………………………………………………………………………ⅷ
List of Acronyms………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………ⅸ
GENERAL INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………………………1
CHAPTER ONE Literature Review
1.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………5
1.2 The Linguistic Situation………………………………………………………………………………………………………5
1.2.1 Arabic …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………6
1.2.2 Berber ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………10
1.2.3 French ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………10
1.3 Language Contact and Bilingualism …………………………………………………………………………11
1.3.1 Code Switching and Code Mixing …………………………………………………15
1.3.2 Borrowings ………………………………………………………………………………………………………19
1.3.3 Interferences ………………………………………………………………………………………………19
1.4 Language, Identity and Culture……………………………………………………………………………………23
1.5 Language Planning and Language Policy ………………………………………………27
1.5.1 Corpus Planning …………………………………………………………………………………………27
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1.5.2 Acquisition Planning ……………………………………………………………………………28
1.5.3 Status Planning …………………………………………………………………………………………28
1.6 Language Attitudes …………………………………………………………………………………………………29
1.7 Language Conflict ……………………………………………………………………………………………………29
1.7.1 Ethnic Language Conflict …………………………………………………………………………30
1.7.2 Political Language Conflict …………………………………………………………31
1.8 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………33
CHAPTER TWO Sociolinguistic Approach to Algeria’s Language
Planning and policy
2.1 Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………34
2.2 Language Planning during the Colonial Period ……………………………34
2.3 Algerian Nationalism ……………………………………………………………………………………………36
2.4 The Arabisation Policy in Post-Colonial Era ……………………………38
2.4.1 Language in-Education Planning …………………………………………………39
2.5 Language Conflict as a Component of language Policy……………………………43
2.5.1 Marginalizing of the Mother Tongues …………………………………………………44
2.5.2 Traditional Discourse of Arabophones versus
Discourse of Francophones ………………………………………………………………………………45
2.6 Towards an attenuation of the Conflict ……………………………………………………………49
2.6.1 New Reforms in the Educational System ……………………………………………51
2.6.2 Francophonie and the Algerian state………………………………………54
2.7 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………57

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CHAPTER THREE Case Study
3.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………58
3.2 Field Study ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………58
3.3 Data Collection Tools……………………………………………………………………………………………58
3.3.1. Questionnaires……………………………………………………………………………………………59
3.3.1.1 Students’Questionnaire……………………………………………………59
3.3.1.2 Teachers’ Questionnaires ………………………………………………70
3.3.2 Semi-structured Interviews ………………………………………………76
3.4 Overall Analysis…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………79
3.4.1 Language Proficiency …………………………………………………………………………………………80
3.4.2 Language Use ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………81
3.4.3 Language Attitude……………………………………………………………………………………………………82
3.4 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………85
GENERAL CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………………………………………………86
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………89
Appendix A: Administrative document………………………………………………………………96
Appendix B: Student’ Questionnaire…………………………………………………………………97
Appendix C: Teacher’ Questionnaire…………………………………………………………………102

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1.1 Situations for High and Low varieties in Diglossic
Communities……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………9
Table 1.2 List of Algerian Medical Journals……………………………………………………………11
Table 2.1 Levels in Primary and Secondary Education between 1960’s
till 1970’s ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………41
Table 2.2 Arabophones / Francophones opinions ……………………………………………………48
Table 2.3 language Spread in University ……………………………………………………………………53
Table 3.1 linguistic Competence……………………………………………………………………………………………60
Table 3.2 Language Used by Students…………………………………………………………………61
Table 3.3 Importance of the languages in teaching Medicine……………………62
Table 3.4 Reasons for Increasing the Importance of Arabic in
teaching Medicine …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………64
Table 3.5 Reasons against Increasing the Importance of Arabic in
teaching Medicine …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………65
Table 3.6 Reasons for Increasing the Importance of French ……66
Table 3.7 Reasons against Increasing the Importance of French………67
Table 3.8 Reasons for Increasing the Importance of Arabic/French
Bilingualism in teaching Medicine ……………………………………………………………………………………68
Table 3.9 Reasons against Increasing the Importance of Arabic/French
Bilingualism in teaching Medicine ……………………………………………………………………………………69
Table 3.10 Students’ Competences according to Teachers’
Judgments………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………71
Table 3.11 Language Use in Classroom ……………………………………………………………71
Table 3.12 Importance of Languages in teaching Medicine …………………………72
Table 3.13 Reasons for Increasing the Importance of French in
teaching Medicine ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………73
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Table 3.14 Reasons against Increasing the Importance of Arabic in
teaching Medicine …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………74
Table 3.15 Reasons against Increasing the Importance of Arabic-
French Bilingualism in Higher Scientific Education …………………………………75

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Diagram 1.1 Aspects of Individual Bilingualism in Algeria ……………………14
Diagram 1.2 Different types of Language Conflict……………32
Graph 3.1 Linguistic Competence among Students’ Respondents…60
Graph 3.2 Language Use by Students ……………… ………………………………………………61
Graph 3.3 Importance of languages in Use …………………………………………………63
Graph 3.4 Students’ Competences according to their Teachers…………………71
Graph 3.5 Language Use in Classroom…………………………………………………………………71
Graph 3.6 Importance of languages in teaching Medicine………………………………72
Graph 3.7 Reasons for increasing the Importance of French in
teaching Medicine ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………73
Graph 3.8 Reasons against increasing the Importance of AR in
teaching Medicine ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………74
Graph 3.9 Reasons against increasing the Importance of Arabic-
French Bilingualism in teaching Medicine …………………………………………………………………75
Pie Chart 3.1 Reasons for increasing the Importance of Arabic in
teaching Medicine ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………64
Pie Chart 3.2 Reasons against increasing the Importance of AR………65
Pie Chart 3.3 Reasons for increasing the Importance of French………66
Pie Chart 3.4 Reasons against increasing the Importance of French
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………67
Pie Chart 3.5 Reasons to increase the Importance of Arabic/French
Bilingualism ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………68
Pie Chart 3.6 Reasons against increasing the Importance of
Arabic/French Bilingualism ………………………………………………………………………………………69

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LIST OF ACRONYMS

AA Algerian Arabic
CA Classical Arabic
CS Code Switching
CM Code Mixing
FR French
AR Arabic

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