English as an Alternative Cultural Capital for University EFL Students in Morocco

Abstract

The status of the English language within the multi-linguistic landscape in Morocco has not yet been clearly defined. There is, nevertheless, a general consensus on the importance of this language for socioeconomic mobility at national and international levels. An evident reflection of such interest in the language is the growing demand for decent levels of English proficiency in various sectors in the Moroccan society and the marked increase in enrolment in English studies departments at Moroccan universities. Current EFL theory and research have focused on psychological factors explaining EFL students’ motivations as inner drives, responses to social pressures, or, more recently, identity formation. Such treatise, however, is limited to micro-level identification processes and fails to pay tribute to larger macro-level processes that operate on the EFL students’ choice and motivations. Critical and sociocultural accounts, in this regard, provide a more viable approach to language and identity; it views learning of a (foreign) language as an identification process through which learners construct various positionings within fields of conflicting ideologies competing for recognition. Referring mainly to Bourdieu’s (Handbook of theory and research for the sociology of education. Greenwood Press, New York, pp. 241–258, 1986) concept of cultural capital and based on a series of semi-structured interviews with 30 EFL university students, the present study sought to investigate English language learning motivations situating them within operating social macro-processes. A critical discourse analysis of the students’ narratives indicated that Moroccan University EFL students perceive English as a cultural capital reflecting a cultural alternative for identification, recognition, and voice within the context of ideological and discursive struggles.