Algeria: 80% of undergraduate students dismally lack fluency in Arabic

A recent study involving nine thousand students from various Algerian institutes and universities, showed that 80 percent of undergraduates do not master classical Arab language after identifying a large number of dismal language mistakes made by many students for their master’s and doctoral theses and end of year research work.

The study revealed the use by students of a large number of French terms and phrases in their research work, transforming University language into a “hybrid” language, a mixture of local and foreign terminology and Arabic, to the point where everyday Algerian language turned into a language not understood by many Arab peoples.

This came out in a an in-depth study conducted by Dr. Khalid Abdul-Salam, a professor at the University of Sétif, who said in a statement to Echorouk that the majority of undergraduate students were not proficient in modern Arabic expression. This was revealed during the oral and written presentation of the students’ research.

He said that many students suffer from a lack of proper expression in Arabic language in the university stands, preferring to use French terminology and slang to convey their thoughts and to ask questions.

The objective of the study, he said, came after frequent language mistakes in the exam papers, thus teachers find it extremely difficult to correct the notes and exam papers.

That is why a group of professors has initiated the project of preparing an in-depth study on the reality of Arabic language in Algerian universities, through the evaluation of a large number of research papers, including doctoral and Masters dissertations in which students committed “crimes” against the purity of the Arab language by writing sentences and words in street vernacular and by using deliberately French technical terms instead of Arabic terms.

“Professors don’t know Arabic, students do not understand French”

According to Mr. Khaled Abdul Salam, who is also a member of several scientific committees at universities and is engaged in manifold observatories and youth associations, this study also revealed that a large number of university academics depended mostly on colloquial language and French to teach students in applied work, and lectures, due to their non-mastery of proper communication in Arabic.

He said over 60 percent of the students think in the dialect and write in Arabic, making their writing style utterly distorted, and far away from the true academic language.