Analyzing the Language Contact Phenomenon in the Algerian Context and its Impact on Loan Words in Communicative Situations: The teachers of English, French and Arabic as a Sample.

Abstract

The present dual-focused descriptive- interpretive study purports itself to investigate and analyze the linguistic outcomes entailing from languages and dialects in contact within the Algerian context, in general, and in tertiary environment, in particular. Indeed, the coexistence of a set of languages and dialects in the Algerian linguistic landscape, viz., the MSA, French, English and the ADA, Berber, etc., results in apparent linguistic changes in everyday interactional situations. It should be noted that the contact of aforementioned languages and dialects influence one another in various ways. In fact, when the users of these varieties interact, sociolinguistic outcomes will emerge, including diglossia, bilingualism code-switching and borrowing. To conduct this research, both qualitative and quantitative tools were used, i.e., two questionnaires which are the fulcrum of our investigation along with an unstructured interview. The targeted population of this investigation consists of university teachers of English, French and Arabic at the faculty of letters and languages at Ibn Khaldoun University of Tiaret. The generated data unveil that almost all teachers code-switch back and forth between all coexisting languages and dialects with a high extent of influence of the ADA. The cogent reasons which code-switchers advanced are for purely pedagogical purposes. It is worthy to note that only few teachers exclusively refute the use of any other language than the target one. Besides, this research highlights the interference of the target language and ADA with a specific focus on their positive/ negative impacts on teaching/ learning the target language.