Acceso usuarios
Ouafae Mouhssine
The process of Arabization in Morocco has led to three main types of discourse: governmental, nationalist and Islamist. All these kinds of discourse are characterized by ambiguity toward the Status ofFrench and the Situation of the local languages. Whereas government discourse favors the consolidation of Arabic-French bilingualism for reasons of modernity and development, the nationalist and Islamist trends argue for the eradication of French from Moroccan society, äs it is a symbol of colonization and cultural alienation. For the Islamist movement, Arabization is a means to ensure the revival and spread of Islam in Morocco, which is subject to the influence of Western civilization, that is itself associated with social and moral decadence. The three types of discourse on Arabization mirror in interesting ways the internal contradictions of present-day Morocco.
Student language attitudes also reflect a certain ambivalence, expressed in their desire to maintain their cultural identity and to gain access to modernity. Thus, the Arabization process has to reconcile the identity components ofboth the past and the present.
