Teaching english to primary school children in algeria:an evaluation by parents and former pubils the case of primary school children in private and public schools in jijel

Abstract

This piece of research is a descriptive study the aim of which is to identify the reasons behind parents’ interest in teaching English to their children at an early age in the Algerian context. It attempts to shed some light on the existing discrepancy between Algeria’s language policy and foreign language needs in this country. In order to tackle this issue, a questionnaire and an interview were used as research tools. The questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 30 parents who have children (5 to 10 years old) studying English in private schools. The aim is to find out why a significant growing number of parents are encouraging their children to study English at such an early age. The interview was conducted with four subjects, from Jijel University, who studied English in primary schools in the 90’s in order to make a retrospective evaluation of the experience of teaching English in the primary public schools from the vintage point of the few pupils themselves in that period. The data analysis revealed that a huge percentage of the studied sample acknowledges the importance of English and strongly agrees that it should be taught in primary schools instead of French. On the other hand, the findings of the interview show that the four subjects believe that studying English in the primary phase was helpful for further acquisition, and argued that it should be reintroduced at least as an alternative first foreign language. On the basis of the results obtained from both the questionnaire and the interview, some pedagogical recommendations have been proposed for the Algerian policy makers and educators who will hopefully take the linguistic needs of the society into consideration and give English a more relevant status by considering its re-introduction to be taught in Algerian primary schools.