Exploring Children’s First Contact with MSA in Divergent Primary Schools: A Comparative Study in TLEMCEN

Abstract

In Algeria, all children are exposed to the vernacular whether at home or in neighbourhood, whereas Modern Standard Arabic is only accessible through formal instruction. This study focuses on the extent to which Arabic diglossia affects the learning process among pupils studying in distinct grades at primary level. In parallel, it indicates the impact of such phenomenon on pupils’ linguistic skills in classroom interaction. This paper is a plea to reconsider pupils’ feelings when they are first faced with Modern Standard Arabic at school and the main language difficulties they confront. Through collecting and analyzing data by means of a questionnaire and an interview, we have tried, in this study, to compare between two school settings to show the extent to which diglossia affects the learning process, firstly by exploring the variety used in classroom interaction and secondly, by insisting on the language difficulties encountered by young pupils.