A critical look at the importance of teaching national identity in Algerian EFL classrooms : perceptions of public middle and secondary school teachers

Abstract EN

Over the past decades, studies investigating the concept of national identity within educational settings have grown increasingly prevalent and in demand.

Ergo, the following study has set out to examine the perceptions of EFL teachers regarding the importance of incorporating national identity within newly developed English textbooks used in public middle and secondary schools in Algeria.

The researchers elicited the views of 112 Algerian teachers during the second semester of the academic year 2017- 2018 regarding the efficiency of home-grown textbooks in teaching national and local matters as well as their role in helping Algerian students foster their intercultural competence.

Overall, the study argued that Algerian EFL teachers believe that textbooks have a disproportionate and unequal balance between national and international identities, and that it does not adequately teach and impart a sufficient understanding of the Algerian national identity.Respondents also believed that defining the Algerian national identity was quite a perplex and confusing matter that often instigates students‟ disinterest to learn the language.

Findings also indicated that although nearly two thirds of the respondents stated that national identity was not an important facet of the EFL education, they further contended that it should begin to be taught as early as middle school and be reinforced and later developed through secondary education, particularly through writing exercises and classes