A Sociolinguistic Study of Parents’ and Teachers’ Attitudes towards the Substitution of French by English at Primary Level in Ain-Temouchent

Abstract

Over the last few years, the demand for teaching English in the Algerian primary schools is increasingly raising due to the globalization and internationalization of the English language. Therefore, the present research work aims at measuring and analyzing the attitudes of both parents and teachers towards the substitution of French by English at primary level. To be more precise, this study is meant to verify whether they have positive or negative attitudes towards this initiative, and the motivations that stand behind their choices. Hence, three hypotheses were set up, for this study, suggesting that parents may display positive attitudes whereas some teachers may deny and show negative attitudes towards this proposition because of some obstacles. To validate our hypotheses, data were collected by means of two distinct questionnaires administered to a random sampling, some of whom were teachers and others were parents at five primary schools situated in Ain-Temouchent and its suburbs. The questionnaires’ findings were further supported by interviews with school directors and educational inspectors. A mixed methods approach based on qualitative and quantitative approaches was used to analyse the data. The results revealed that the parents displayed positive attitudes towards the replacement of French by English whereas teachers were less supportive to this initiative and showed some negative attitudes. However, further research on this current debated topic is highly recommended in order to raise the stakeholders’ awareness about this issue.