The Spread of English in Algeria: Uses and Attitudes. A Case Study of Guelma City

Abstract

It is acknowledged worldwide that English is the lingua franca of a world that had become a small village. English is the global language used by millions of native speakers and non-native speakers in all different fields. In this respect, this research intends to shed light on the place and uses of English in Algeria. This latter has witnessed different historical events that led to a complex sociolinguistic scene. These reasons raise questions and hypothesis about whether the worldwide spread of English as a global language would show in Guelma-Algeria. Thus, the present study aims at investigating the spread and use of English language in the sociolinguistic landscape of Guelma, the domains witnessing this spread, and individual’s attitudes towards it. In order to investigate this feature, two research tools were used, a questionnaire that was administered to students from Guelma-Algeria and a corpus analysis on shops signs and advertising boards texts. The findings gathered in this study confirmed the set hypothesis.