Quran Schools as an Alternative Remedy for The Negative Repercussions of Arabic Diglossia

Abstract

t Diglossia characteristic of the Arabic language imposes serious issues on quality education and academic achievement, especially at the beginning of the learning career. This is primarily due to the fact that education is based on Standard Arabic which actually is not the real mother tongue, or at least the first language, of children. Therefore, the present work addresses this issue by considering learners (second grade) in primary schools of Algeria, as an instance of the diglossic community. The work examined the effects of early exposure to Standard Arabic. It therefore sought the (linguistic) role of Quran schools which receives children under the age of six. To this end, the work built on a linguistic comparison between learners of second grade in a classroom which counts learners with prior experience in Quran schools and others who have never enrolled in such institutions. The work based on a structured questionnaire designed for teachers in addition to classroom observation. As for the findings, elementary school teachers confirmed that young learners confront several linguistic challenges at the beginning of their school career. The findings also revealed significant linguistic differences among learners in the sense that learners who experienced Quran schools exposed developed linguistic abilities and a higher readiness to use/understand the language of instruction compared to their counterparts with no similar experience. Therefore, the great majority of teachers acknowledged the advantages that are gained from early acquaintance with Standard Arabic. Teachers confirmed that Quran schools play a chief role in the preparation of the child linguistically but also psychologically and socially.