Morocco: English as the Second Language · Global Voices
Nabila Taj

This post is part of our special coverage Languages and the Internet.
In a recent interview with African Writing Online, Laila Lalami, a Moroccan-American author, elaborates on her educational upbringing. Lalami grew up speaking Moroccan Arabic,  but it was not until she was a teenager that she “finally came across Moroccan novels, written by Moroccan authors, and featuring Moroccan characters.” This is primarily because Lalami attended a French school as a child. She says:
“French was the language in which I was first exposed to literature, beginning with children's comics like Tintin and Asterix, through young adult novels like those of Alexandre Dumas, all the way to classics like those of Victor Hugo.”
Nonetheless, Lalami published her first novel, Secret Son, in English after earning a Ph.D in linguistics from the University of Southern California.
Lalami’s experience is quite common for a student in Morocco. Said Bellari, a writer for Moroccoboard.com, advocates the gradual eradication of the dependence on the French language,  and the introduction of English as the official second language of Morocco. In his essay, he introduces a newfangled concept known as “disliteracy:”
“It means that they are speaking the wrong language in Morocco amongst themselves and with the rest of the world. Because of that we fail to go with the global flow and we isolate ourselves more and more from the development growth of other areas abroad like the one in South East Asia. Just to be clear from the onset: with this assertion I do not want to say that we should stop speaking Arabic in Morocco. Allah yastar (May Allah have mercy)! Not in the least, perhaps we should do that even more. With it I mean in fact that we should aim to fade out the French language as soon as possible. Simultaneously we should give the English language a fresh stimulus in all aspects of Moroccan society and let it take its place as a second language of Morocco. French should not even be 3rd or 4th language for that matter. This change from a francophone to an “Arab-Anglophone” country will introduce a second era of Istiqlal (independence).”
Language is a key component in the formation of a society. Societies come together based on common values and one objective is to form a way to communicate with one another in order to flourish. Bellari writes that it is self-destructive for the Moroccan society to continue to keep French as a second language:
“Every Moroccan academician, scientist, entrepreneur, artist, writer, doctor, politician or whatever key societal character, will easily admit that French is still the Master of the Moroccan Universe. In more than 50 years France has still succeeded in keeping the illusion in Morocco alive and kicking that we need our historical and cultural ties with it.”
Although it has been 55 years since Morocco gained its independence, French influences are still quite evident. Language is self-referential tool used to express social identity. Every language offers its own tones, gestures, facial expressions, and accents. It also comes with a heavy history. In this case, Bellari says:
“For the remaining part, French as a Lingua Franca in Moroccan society, consciously, but even more unconsciously, still reminds us of being slaves, of being dependent, of being backward, of being unable and of being all the things that second rate people are, or better phrased: of being what racist people want you to think of yourselves, of being second rate: I am less worthy, less able.”
In addition to distinguishing national identity, an increased use of English will open up new doors in the world of science and technology. A blogger on Bla Francia, Hicham, describes the lack of advancement in the scientific sphere. Reliance on the French language, especially in the education and research of the sciences, does not seem to reap in enough benefits for Morocco. Hicham lists the following statistics :
- 50% of students enrolled in the first year of university drop out before the end of the first term, without obtaining any certificate.
– 9.3 is the average number of years required to obtain a bachelor's degree (usually takes four years),
– Less than 10% of graduating students only receive a bachelor's degree in four years
Although high costs are also a reason for the low graduation rate, it is a reality that:
The French language is relatively prevalent in Morocco, but most students are not comfortable enough with it to actively participate in the scientific world where French is the primary language. To improve the situation, the blogger, who is quoting from a paper by Khaled Sami on the need of scientific e-documents in Arabic, suggests:
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Providing a crash course in French is one way to appease the situation, but Hicham encourages that universities should allow their students to explore the scientific world in their own vernacular, Arabic. This does not diminish the vast number of scientific publications, and Internet references reported in English. International forums, and organizations in the scientific sphere are more likely to communicate in English than in Arabic, or in French.
Bellari continues in his essay to say that propagating English as the second language will lead to:
“a true collective grass-roots wave that speaks of will-power, self-determination, self-expression and new trust, hope and optimism for the future. It is the collective people’s effort of riding the Laraki of Moroccan destiny while halting the constant watching in the rear mirror and start looking through the front window, to 2050 and beyond, in the sole interest of our children and grandchildren.”
If the English language does gain the title of the official second language of Morocco, entirely new pockets of economic and social opportunities will manifest themselves to the residents of Morocco.
This post is part of our special coverage Languages and the Internet.