[Tribune]: Why do young Moroccans prefer English to French?
Tribune
Why do young Moroccans prefer English to French?
More and more young Moroccans believe that mastering English will give them access to better education and increase their chances of obtaining a position abroad. French is less popular than before.
To understand the reasons for the detachment of young Moroccans from French in favor of English, we conducted focus groups with first year students of a business school. The groups were composed in such a way as to reflect the diversity of the students in terms of social origin (students from the wealthiest classes and scholarship students) and mastery of the French and English languages (certain students displaying a particular appetite for 'one or the other of the two languages).
The expression of young people reveals an ambivalent relationship to the French language. We identify three social and political reasons for their preference for English:
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a pragmatic and functional relationship between young people and the foreign language;
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a transformation of elites;
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management of language stigma among the working classes.
Pr. Hafsa El Bekri Pr. Hicham Sebti
Research professor in international economics Director of Euromed Business School
Associate researcher at RIEMAS Associate researcher at RIEMAS
