French and Algerian Arabic in a Bilingual Situation Case Study of Tlemcen Speech Community

Abstract

This is a micro-sociolinguistic study of bilingualism in Algeria taking the speech community of Tlemcen as a case in point. The study attempts to explain how students in Tlemcen University use the French language as well as their mother tongue, Algerian Arabic, in the context of their studies. Lack of competence and problems in their mastery of French have opened a real field of investigation to approach this problematic issue in relation to many social factors. By means of a questionnaire and interviews addressed to the students, the data collected are analysed by contribution of the students’ attitudes and feelings towards the French language. Also, a comparative study is established between today’s students and the ‘first’ generation, those people who studied French during and right after French colonialism, to show the mastery level of French between the two generations. The study reveals that even if it exists side by side with Arabic in the daily speech of Algerians, French is tightly related to political, educational and social factors.