Dialectal Arabic, MSA and Formal Education in Algeria

The present paper addresses issues related to the effect that the abrupt shift from the mother tongue to the school language impacts on the quality of Algerian children’s formal instruction and the difficulties they face in primary school. The diglossic character of today’s Arabic appears to be problematic as it hampers the intellectual progress and the cognitive development of the child. To clarify the point, the study compares the intellectual development that the Algerian learner goes through with that of English or French children who are not faced with the same difficulties at school as their respective native tongues are not very distant from the standard forms. A number of 3 to 5-year-old children were observed in a kindergarten where they got progressively acquainted with Standard Arabic, particularly in its spoken form, while playing, singing and drawing. This early immersion proved to be of valuable assistance for their academic achievement when they reached school age.