French linguistic and cultural hegemony in a multilingual context : case of the department of English, Bejaia university

Abstract EN

Although EFL teachers and students at Bejaia University know at least four languages, French dominates their out of class discussions.

Despite the out of class settings offer an opportunity to practice English; yet, teachers and students prefer to use French.

These paradoxical observations led to question the cultural and linguistic hegemony of French in Bejaia's professional settings.

This paper aims to investigate whether the use of French by EFL teachers and students at the workplace results from French hegemony through Bejaia is in itself a multilingual and multicultural context.

The study is ethnographic in nature where a qualitative research design was adopted relying on observation and interviews.

Results revealed that French is used both as the language of the administration and of the professional contexts.

Besides, the use of French is considered as part of the Algerians' culture and history.