Weaponization of French and Rejection of Maghrebi Arabic in a French High School

Abstract

This article draws on a four-month ethnography in a rural French high school. Through analysis of ten Franco-Maghrebi students’ communicative resources, experiences of schooling, and narratives, along with educators’ perspectives, the study shows that the students’ home languages were rejected and perceived as a threat to France’s hegemony. At the same time, French was weaponized and imposed as the legitimate language. However, the results indicate that these youths had a desire to maintain a link with their heritage language and culture, and that Islam, with its related socioliteracy practices, could represent an alternative discourse. Through a postcolonial lens, the article examines how policies to ensure the dominance of French culture and language have delegitimized the cultures and languages of its minorities, of which immigrants from the Maghreb constitute the largest and most marginalized non- European minority. Further, it demonstrates how institutional practices and sociopolitical discourses contribute to discrimination, inequity, and an exclusive school environment.