T he t e a c hing of English in

M oroc c o: t he pla c e of c ult ure

Martin Hyde

This article is the fruit of teaching English for two years in a Moroccan
secondary school in the 1980s, and of attending the Moroccan Association
of teachers of English (MATE) Xllth Annual Conference in December 1991,
where one of the workshops raised the issue of ELT being used as a vehicle
for cultural imperialism in Morocco. Several suggestions. were made for
ways to contain the perceived threat from ELT to the national culture. This
article considers why such situations arise, and looks at possible ways of
responding to them, which I shall term ‘ESP’ and ‘nativization’, with their
inherent shortcomings. I then argue for an alternative approach to the
problem which makes the cultural content of foreign language learning
explicit.

Background Language use reflects culture and it is impossible to disassociate the two
in any real sense (Fairclough 1992: 6), yet in Morocco there are
educationalists who feel a need to disassociate the English language from
the cultures of what Kachru (1985) terms the ‘centre circle’ of English-
speaking countries.

The language Because of the country’s complicated history of European colonization,

situation the people of Morocco tend to be very aware of the issue of imperialism.
The French and Spanish languages were forced upon them by colonial
powers this century, adding to the linguistic complexity of a situation in
which two standards of Arabic - Classical and Moroccan dialectical
Arabic - have been imposed on the three major Berber language varieties
also spoken in Morocco. One effect of such linguistic imposition has been
to undermine and devalue native languages, especially when the imposed
language fulfils the four functions outlined by Kachru (1983): the
instrumental function (the medium of learning in the educational system);
the regulative function (the legal and administrative systems); the
interpersonal function (used as both an intra- and international link
language); and finally, the imaginative/innovative function (used to
develop a literature of the subjugated culture’s linguistic system).

Linguistic In Morocco it has been felt necessary to learn another ‘imposed’

domination language: English. It can be argued that nowadays, in the ‘post-colonial’
period, physical domination and colonization have been replaced by
ELT Journal Volume 48/4 October 1994 © Oxford University Press 1994 295
 economic, technological, and linguistic domination (Phillipson 1992).
Capitalism - linguistically spearheaded by the English language (Holly
1990), which presents and markets its products and images to the rest of
the world - has led through the technological revolution to a new kind of
colonization, in which cultures with fewer resources are undermined. At a
supranational level, English can be viewed as becoming a new imposed
language, gradually fulfilling Kachru’s four linguistic functions at world
level.
Language nowadays deals in image, and can be marketed and sold like
any other product or service: ‘speaking English is the key to
employment’, ‘speaking English joins you to the international
community’, ‘speaking English makes for modernity’, and so forth. In
underdeveloped countries, advertisements imply similar social benefits
from smoking Western brands of cigarettes. The pressure to learn English
may well be seen as an attempt at linguistic and social domination for
economic ends by the English-speaking nations.

Cultural The danger of the advertising and the symbolism behind it is that traditional
deracination cultures and their languages are, by implication, presented as backward and
incapable of ‘modernity’. Cultural deracination - the erosion of belief in
the ability of native culture and language to deal with the modem world -
leaves its victims at the mercy of culturally imperialistic and potentially
dangerous forces such as, say, cigarette advertising, or ELT. Freire (1972),
points to education as a way for people to make sense of and gain control
over their lives. ELT which ignores the cultural implications of its content
can be accused of doing the opposite. Instead of clarifying and
empowering, it confuses and subjugates. One of the duties of formal
education, and especially of foreign language teachers in countries such as
Morocco, is to help students develop mental constructs with which to
analyse their particular situation and defend themselves from potentially
imperialistic forces. In Morocco there is a case for making pro-active
strategies in ELT to protect the national culture and languages.

ESP: English as a There have been suggestions that English can be used as a purely
functional tool instrumental tool, nothing more than a linguistic means to certain ends,
such as fuller employment and a stronger economy, as in tourism,
international banking, and higher education, and for access to texts. The
belief behind this approach to ELT is that by teaching only the English
language skills and content students will need after secondary school, the
cultures behind the language can be ‘contained’, and the unwanted side-
effects of English language learning reduced. A salient comment made at
the 1991 MATE conference was ‘Let us use English for our specific
purposes, and not let English use us for its specific purposes.’ To the
extent that General English may be a vehicle for the introduction of alien
and harmful ideas, it must be controlled.

Controlling use Another argument says that if an attempt is made to control the target
language in its functional uses to specific domains, students will be
296 Martin Hyde
 encouraged to employ instrumental motivation rather than use the
language in a way which might involve the student in identifying with the
target language culture. To do so would require and encourage integrative
motivation (see Gardner and Lambert, 1972). For language planners and
teachers who feel a foreign language needs ‘strait-jacketing’, ESP is an
attractive possible solution. This package, it is hoped, will hold the
foreign language in check, reduce it to a tool for use, and emasculate its
nefarious ability to serve as a vehicle for cultural imperialism.

However, such a utilitarian, instrumental view of language is riddled with

major problems. How are we to decide on classroom language content, or
train teachers for this type of teaching, or define students’ future needs,
given that the majority of students will probably not go on to further
education, work with English, or quite possibly ever use English again
after school?

It is also evident that this censorial and authoritarian approach would

require ‘guardians’ to choose between what is ‘useful’ and what is
‘harmful’ for the students to receive in the classroom. What learners may
feel about the issue is not considered; some kind of censorial association
would be needed, involving everyone from syllabus designers to teachers
in the classroom, which would be responsible for extracting the ‘negative’
aspects of ELT.

Deculturizing A further problem is that stripping English of its cultural baggage would
language also strip students of invaluable knowledge. Zizi (1991) demonstrated
that cultural as well as linguistic knowledge is indispensable for making
sense of British and American advertisements. EFL educationalists,
aware of the dangers of cultural imperialism in Kachru’s (1985)
‘expanding circle’ countries may argue for splitting language from
culture (Alptekin and Alptekin 1984), but this solution fails to address the
question as to why students are learning English in Morocco.

The strongest argument against the censorial ESP approach is reflected in

Figure 1, which shows that students are in any case increasingly in
contact with Western influences and values. Moroccans, along with
people all over the world, are living in an age in which a global
information technology revolution is taking place. Information, mostly in
English, is flooding the world, through advertisements, magazines,
newspapers, books, instruction manuals, satellite television, films and
rock music, videos, radio, telephones, the post, fax and telex machines,
computers and information technology in general, tourism and migration
for economic and educational reasons, and business relations. All of these
make it very doubtful that the outside world could be kept out of
Moroccan (or any other) society, so in many ways the ESP ‘solution’ as
presented here is an impossibility, an attempt to have something and not
have something at the same time, for the only way to stop students from
coming into contact with what are considered harmful concepts would be
not to teach them English at all.
The place of culture in ELT in Morocco 297
 Figure 1: The
‘censorship’ model

Rejected cultural
input

and culture(s)

Rejected cultural
input

However, the validity of ESP is very much governed by the methods

employed to arrive at the specific purposes in mind. If the aim was to
combat the linguistic and cultural dominance of English by attempting to
deculturize the language, the approach becomes unrealistic and
unmanageable. On the other hand, if it involves focusing student
awareness on the ideology behind English discourse, by developing a
critical language awareness in students (Fairclough 1992) it becomes
more viable.

The nativization Another answer to the problem is afforded by the ‘nativization’ solution
solution which we can find, for instance, in India or Singapore. The main tenet of
the argument for nativization is that once a language is nativized it
becomes independent of an external source and culture, and can reflect the
local culture instead. As Phillipson (1992: 50) states: ‘Adherence to a
British global norm is symptomatic of dependence rather than self-
sufficiency.’

functions of It is helpful at this point to consider the division between the two opposing
language functions of a language (see Widdowson 1982): between the
communicative function used for the convergence of meaning between
social groups, countries, and cultures (the co-operative imperative), and
the identifying function of expressing and preserving intra-group identity
(the territorial imperative). A consequence of attempting to indigenize
English in Morocco is that the communicative function of the language
becomes reduced as the identifying function increases. In psychological
terms, the language is ‘possessed’ by its users, i.e. it is endo-normative
298 Martin Hyde
 and no longer norm-dependent on a foreign power, i.e. exo-normative.
Culturally it begins to reflect the local environment rather than an external
one, and is therefore ideologically more under control. But the problem is
that Morocco is an exo-normative, dependent country with respect to
English, as this language does not have the historical and sociological link
with Morocco as a language of colonialism in the same way as French or
Spanish. On what basis, then, can a ‘Moroccan English’ be derived? The
historical background is not in place for English to have developed, or to
develop in the future, as it has done in ‘outer circle countries’ (Kachru
1985) such as India.

Aims of English It is important to consider the aims of English language learning in

language learning Morocco. Why use English, at great cost, to replace the functions of
French or Arabic? Both of these are international languages, and their
own basolects, mesolects, and acrolects are used effectively by many
Moroccans to describe their own reality, so it would seem questionable to
use English mainly to reflect Moroccan culture as a syllabus design option
(see Askadou et al. 1990). English as a foreign language in Morocco is a
means of learning about things outside Morocco. It would seem most
appropriate for English in Morocco to perform its communicative
function, and unrealistic to expect it to be used for its identifying function,
(which could also be argued to be unnecessary).

The English At this point it is necessary to describe the premises about language upon
language: friend which this article is based. For instance, the idea that any particular
or foe? language is intrinsically ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is discarded. Language is seen as
a tool for communication, and as such is not to be confused with ideology,
that is, the subject matter or specific messages that people choose to
convey through the medium of that particular language. To believe that a
language per se is dangerous is to hold a confused and ill-founded notion
of language. The concept of linguistic relativity, that language actually
shapes thought, has few adherents and is discounted here. This
discounting of the strong version of the Sapir/Whorf hypothesis dismisses
any concept of ‘original sin’ in a particular language (see Whorf 1958).
However, not many people have a pragmatic, demystified view of
language. Different languages, and indeed the dialects and accents of a
language, are consigned to various functions in a society, and hold vastly
varying statuses. Language in social and psychological terms is therefore
value-laden, even if the pure linguist can argue that it should not be, or,
indeed, that intrinsically it is not.

Language is used as a symbol for status and power, and therefore

influences and shapes people’s responses and values. With this in mind
one may well feel that ELT in Morocco is accompanied by arguably
undesirable perlocutionary effects (deracination, rejection of own culture,
changed behaviour) and is not simply, as it is often dressed up to be
(Phillipson 1992), an ‘innocent’ tool at the service of the nation, for its
betterment and integration into the world’s information systems.
The place of culture in ELT in Morocco 299
 Language Although people are not necessarily prisoners of their language, it is
dynamically undoubtedly true that the way a culture sees the world is reflected in its
reflects a zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA
culture language (Valdes 1990) and especially in its discourse structures.1
and its values

Religious Harrell et al. (1965) inform us: ‘In English the word “God” is usually
references restricted to either oaths. both profane and serious, or to formally serious
situations. Arabic, on the other hand, employs references to God, and to
religion in general, in a wide variety of everyday situations.’ When the
future tense is used by native speakers of English, the speakers do not feel
a need to ‘soften their arrogant assumption’ that the future will occur, and
appeal to the benevolence of God on such an occasion by adding ‘God
willing’. It seems reasonable to state that discourse patterns grow out of
and reflect the values and latent beliefs of a given society at a particular
stage in its history. It therefore stands to reason that the ostensive lack of
reverence and religion in modern English may cause confusion or a
negative perception of English and the cultures it reflects for Moroccans,
who are using a language where a religious view of life is axiomatic and
integral to its discourse patterns. If language is value-laden at the level of
its discourse patterns and grammatical exponents, as suggested in this
article, then ELT in Morocco is not simply about learning a separate
linguistic code (no matter how much it may be ‘sanitized’) but brings
students into direct contact with non-Moroccan cultural attitudes.

Markers of respect An example from personal experience of how this can affect the
Moroccan EFL classroom is the use of the respectful marker ‘mister’
(probably a lexical translation of the French ‘monsieur’) used by students
when addressing the teacher, and often inserted mid-sentence into their
speech. An attempt by a teacher to correct this discoursal anomaly
challenges the very social structure and discourse patterns that Moroccan
students expect to operate in a classroom. A teacher who does so is asking
students to use linguistically less respectful language than they may feel is
required by the situation. Not surprisingly, correction without explanation
can lead to confusion. Teachers who ignore the social dimension of ELT,
or who do not research the cultures behind the native languages in which
the students operate, and behind the target language they are teaching,
may not be aware of such issues, and will not be able to explain the
differences to their students but may lead them into confusion.
Realization of the origin of the problem is the first step towards
developing a rationale upon which to implement the teaching process. Is
the teacher to accept the Moroccan discourse pattern in the target
language? Or is he or she to teach the culture of the target language,
explaining that ‘mister’ should be ‘sir’ and that its overuse may have a
negative effect on the addressee if that person is not versed in the cultural
background of the speaker. ? A teacher needs to know what model of
English he or she is teaching, since this will in turn affect the linguistic
content taught and the classroom methodology. In this article my
argument is in favour of bringing such issues to light in the classroom.
300 Martin Hyde
Student valuation In my experience, students in the Moroccan EFL classroom used
of linguistic translation for the respectful marker ‘mister’, but code-switched to Arabic
codes for religious purposes. English may be deemed an acceptable code for
politeness, but not for religion. English in Morocco is a performance
variety (a foreign language), and a language without an institutionalized
status ‘has a highly restricted functional range in specific contexts’.
(Kachru 1983: 38). Religion is outside the restricted range of English in
Morocco, and the reason for this is probably the Moroccan students’
value-laden view of language codes (Cortazzi 1990: 60). The resulting
student utterances as described above cannot be treated as errors because
their origin lies in psycholinguistics: they are a largely subconscious
creative construct.

Interpreting Arabic discourse patterns are often not transferable to standard British or
pragmatic force American English, so students need to be instructed about target cultures
if they are to be able to use target language discourse patterns, and
especially if they are expected to listen to and interpret the real pragmatic
force of non-indigenized English discourse. This does not mean that
students should experience an assault on their identity when learning
English, but they do need to be trained in what Smith (1987: 3) terms ‘the
sense of the other’. They need to know about the discourse strategies of
the prospective others with whom they will communicate, and this means
they need to learn about the others’ cultures.
Other Englishes need to be seen as separate discourse systems reflecting
cultures and values different to those of Morocco, and these values need
to be made explicit. Emphasis must be placed scientifically on
distinctiveness, and refraining from value judgements is essential. In this
very sensitive and difficult area (an area in which teachers need training),
the foreign language and its cultures should not be presented in terms of
superiority or inferiority.2 Whilst learning English in Morocco the
students’ views of the world may well be directly challenged; the skill of
the teacher is to make sure that this does not undermine the students’ view
of their own language and culture, or lead them to adopt the defensive
mechanism of rejecting the foreign language. If the teacher does not take
active steps to avoid either of these outcomes, there is a risk of a hidden
curriculum beginning to operate in the language classroom (Byram
1989).

Implications for The challenge in teaching a foreign language which reflects a different
teaching level of technological advancement, general material wealth, and a
separate system of social organization that is often at considerable
variance on a political and moral level with the Moroccan one, is to do so
without encouraging students to draw negative conclusions about their
own culture (Holly 1990) or reject the painful intrusion of the target
language and cultures. There are two paths to take at this juncture: one is
the ‘censorship’ path discussed above, the other is the ‘analytical’ path.
This faces the true nature of the problem by making the cultural content of
the language learning process explicit, and drawing students’ attention to
The place of culture in ELT in Morocco 301
 their own history and culture, as well as to those of the target language, in
order to explain and contrast the differences: in effect, facing up to the
true political nature of language teaching. Language teaching needs to
encompass the three interwoven strands of language use: awareness of the
nature of language, and the understanding of both the foreign zyxwvutsrqponm
and the
native culture (Byram 1989: 23). Arguments of the censorship variety
only posit the first and perhaps the second of these strands.

An alternative I would argue against those EFL educationalists who wish only to impart
solution a narrow instrumental English to their students, and who unrealistically
dream of English becoming a second language in Morocco. The problem
must be faced in another way: the ideological nature of language teaching
needs to be confronted, not avoided. If this is done then a different
strategy for dealing with ELT can be developed.

Analytical thinking Perhaps a solution to the problem can be found by looking at the role of
the teacher as that of a catalyst for analytical thinking. If the young, and
indeed all disempowered, fragmented groups of people, are gullible, and
susceptible to advertising, fashion, and other forms of social and political
pressure, (sometimes beneficial, sometimes nefarious) it follows that the
teacher has a responsibility to equip younger students, in particular, with
the means to defend themselves from such pressures. The choice open to
the teacher is to censor (by filtering the information language students
receive) or to expose (by allowing students to come into contact with all
the information/language available). The teacher who takes the first
option avoids the responsibility of giving students the means to defend
themselves from possibly harmful concepts and pressures. Askadou et al.
(1990) suggest that knowledge of Western culture will lead to student
discontent with their own culture, possibly corrupting them, and
introducing them to patterns of behaviour most Moroccans would prefer
not to see as models for their young people. This view is expressed as the
justification to censor aspects of Western culture from the syllabus of a
secondary English course for Moroccan students.

Critical language Yet the question that needs to be asked is whether the only contact that
awareness Moroccan youth will have with Western culture is likely to be through the
medium of a school textbook. If, on the other hand, an uncensored view of
the target language and the cultures that it represents is presented to
students, a teacher’s energies can be concentrated not on the increasingly
impossible task of censorship, but on developing analytical tools for his or
her students, such as critical language awareness (Fairclough 1992). This
will equip them with a mental construct through introspection, analysis,
and investigation with which to be able to respond adequately and
confidently to the pressures of the external cultures and its language. (See
Figure 2). Prodromou (1988: 83) backs this view by stating that the
teaching of English should become ‘a process of devolving self-
awareness of the world outside the classroom’.
302 Martin Hyde
Figure 2: The ‘analytical’

Confident Understanding Analysed

responses responses

Focusing on the There is a strong case for focusing on the learner as an integrated. whole
learner not the person in the Moroccan school system. A bottom-up view of the realistic
language present and future needs of students would, I believe, lead one to the
conclusion that in the modem world, in which countries are becoming
more and more interconnected through economic forces and the media,
students need to develop strategies in the classroom for dealing with the
confusing and often overwhelming cultural pressures exerted by powerful
Western nations. This is very different from the top-down ESP needs
analysis approach, which would suggest that students only need to learn
language specific to certain areas of academic study, or for certain
professions. Without being equipped to deal with the cultural and
ideological pressures from the outside world, most students will have
wasted much of their time in the EFL classroom on a linguistic code they
will never use.

To be able to select, accept, or reject ideas, concepts, and pressures,

especially those emanating from other and dominant cultures, people
have to be equipped with a good knowledge of their own culture and
history. This provides the bedrock upon which to judge. Establishing this
bedrock in students should be a cross-curricular goal. English is situated
at the interface of foreign and native cultural values to a greater extent
than any other language because of its greater use around the world, and
because it is the linguistic vehicle of the dominant twentieth-century
culture. Instead of being taught in isolation from other subjects in the
curriculum, as I experienced it in Morocco, English should be part of an
integrated curriculum. EFL should have a role as part of general
The place of culture in ELT in Morocco 303
 education. For their students to be able to cope with ever-increasing
foreign cultural pressures, teachers of Arabic, French, history, geography,
and philosophy in particular, and no doubt of other subjects in Moroccan
secondary schools, need to adopt this interdisciplinary approach.
It must be stressed that this article is very much a personal reaction to
some ideas in ELT. I recognize the common sense of arguments that state,
for instance, that Moroccan students do not need to know culturally
unnecessary and perplexing details of the British class system, or the rules
of cricket (Alptekin 1993). At the same time, arguments for deculturation
of the target language may well be based on censorial rather than
pedagogical motives. I see a danger, an absurdity, and an impossibility, in
pursuing this approach to the point where the English language is only
used to reflect what the student already knows. If this is done then a
learning opportunity is lost. A student, for instance, whose English course
has nothing to do with Britain or the USA, and has Moroccans speaking
English to each other in Morocco, would find it both absurd and
disappointing. If the same logic were then applied to learning French,
Spanish. Chinese. or any other language I can imagine the student
developing a sense of extreme claustrophobia, and of having been
cheated. Clearly, this is not the road to travel down. The other option, of
explicitly confronting the foreign culture in the classroom, may require
new skills for teachers, but appears to be to be the saner and ultimately the
safer road to take.
Received July 1993

Notes Language Education. Clevedon, Philadelphia:

1 The English language is used to reflect many
different cultures.
2 It is cultural difference that needs to be
emphasized, not the spurious notion of cultural
superiority/inferiority. Arguments that posit the
latter notion (Barrow 1990) should have no place in
ELT.
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The place of culture in ELT in Morocco 305