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Language Commodification in Morocco: an Emerging Discourse
Abstract
The current debate surrounding the language of instruction in Morocco is symptomatic of the emergence of neoliberal discourses, which Shankar and Cavanaugh (2012) argue intertwine linguistic forms with their economic value, characteristic of late modern society. This study examines overt language attitudes of Moroccan university students, where the unequal distribution of linguistic resources generates two speech communities with diverging attitudinal profiles. Language has become a commodifiable object within the global market economy, the control of which shapes spaces of participation, dominance, and marginalization (Heller, 2010; Skutnabb-Kangas and Phillipson, 2010; Urciuoli and LaDousa, 2013). This theoretical framework conceptualizes the role of language as a commodity that promotes socioeconomic asymmetries in the global economy. In light of the emergence of the trope of profit (Duchêne and Heller 2012), I argue that the global market economy has promoted new forms of linguistic hegemony, which bifurcates the Moroccan educational domain into two speech communities. This paper examines French-taught and Standard Arabic-taught groups, for which language of instruction emerges a marker of socioeconomic class membership and predicts respondents’ overt language attitudes. Previous research has not investigated the relationship between language of instruction and speakers’ language attitudes. The results of an overt language attitudes questionnaire, administered in Morocco in 2007 and 2008 to 464 university students, show that the trope of profit facilitates an instrumental adoption of French and English in the educational domain by French-taught respondents, in lieu of local languages. In spite of the socioeconomic mobility attached to the acquisition of French and English, Standard Arabic-taught respondents contest this trope, as maintaining Standard Arabic as a language of instruction promotes local identity and culture. The results of this study are essential to unpack the growing influence of neoliberal discourse on post-colonial countries, whose policies oscillate between asserting local identity through local languages and promoting participation within the global market economy.
Discipline
Linguistics
Geographic Area
All Middle East
Maghreb
Morocco
Sub Area
None