Foreign Language Education in Morocco: Can French Withstand the Hegemony of English?

Abstract

In the wake of independence, Morocco has undertaken a series of linguistic reforms to meet the challenges of the continuously developing society. The successive reforms in Morocco's language policy and planning took charge of managing the diversity of the linguistic situation within the educational system where a number of local and foreign languages interact. French, English, and Spanish share the teaching of foreign languages in Moroccan schools. However, only two of these have been at the forefront recently. French, which has for long enjoyed a privileged place within the Moroccan community, is at risk of losing its status in favour of English that is increasingly held in high esteem among young Moroccans. The objective of this research is to identify the different factors that can destabilize the status of French (L2) in the presence of the fast-paced spread of English (L3) by sharing insight into youngsters’ attitudes towards the two languages in the Moroccan context. The results obtained from the survey conducted among young Moroccans aged 18 to 25 clearly revealed positive attitudes towards learning English against a noticeable lack of motivation towards French. Admittedly, participants showed a positive view of French too, but the mastery of English, for them, has become a necessity thanks to its growing dominance in education, the business world, the labour market, and international relations. The results also disclosed an uncertain future of the French language whether in the educational system or in the Moroccan society at large.