Educational policies and national education reforms in Algeria: What impact on French language teaching practices?

Abstract

Since 1962, Algeria has carried out a number of educational reforms. These have all had varying degrees of impact on the teaching and learning of foreign or second languages, particularly French. What is the actual impact of these various reforms on the curricula, textbooks and practices of French language teachers? This study shows that, while the reforms have certainly had a positive effect on the teaching and learning of French, which is now broadly based on the principles of the new approaches to teaching foreign and second languages, it has to be acknowledged that a number of highly relevant recommendations from a didactic point of view remain at the stage of intentions without any significant impact on textbooks and classroom practices.