Cultural Hybridation for Identity Construction: the case of the Algerian Secondary School EFL education

Amziane, Hamid; Guendouzi, Amar

الخطاب
Volume 10, Numéro 20, Pages 3-22
2015-06-01

Cultural Hybridation For Identity Construction: The Case Of The Algerian Secondary School Efl Education

Authors : Amziane Hamid . Guendouzi Amar .

Abstract

Viewed through the concept of cultural hybridity, the approach to language learning and communication triggers cultural contacts among language users. It places the Algerian learner in the position of a multi-language user (mother tongue, national language, school languages). This creates cultural diversity fostered by the existence of a diversity of understandings of the local, regional, national and international environments. Compared to a monolingual speaker, a language learner who becomes multilingual is expected to respond differently to a variety of situations. This suggests that his/her understanding is deepened thanks to “cultural dialogues” and that he/she becomes more aware to accept the other by recognizing and sharing the difference with the other. But, a question arises: does this diversity of culture lead to what H. Bhabha calls the “third place”? In other terms, does this offer opportunity for the learner to see his/her local world through lenses of the “Global Village” without the risk of acculturation? The challenge is therefore to define and construct a learner’s identity through EFL learning. Within this perspective, Guy Oliver Fauve (1993), believes that local allegiances should be reconciled with global affinities. For him, our world is a world of globalization; therefore, the big challenge remains in the capacity to foster “a vision of the whole that accommodates the diversity of the parts” (ibid:vii). Put differently, the function of culture is to preserve the individual’s identity without neglecting the difference with the other’s.