Factors influencing language attritionmaintenance among students of English at Abou Bekr Belkaid University-Tlemcen

Abstract EN

This research aims at investigating the factors influencing attrition / maintenance of French among students of English as a foreign language.

the data were collected through interviews and questionnaires that were administered to students of English in Abou Bekr Belkaid university of Tlemcen, Algeria.

the questionnaire and the interviews were adapted from Monika S.

Schmid's research manual “the language attrition test battery.” a group of forty-two students was examined, twenty of them are majoring in the first year of license (L1) from the LMD system, the remaining twenty-two are master students.

the data were analyzed by means of SPSS.

the main findings show that most students have positive attitudes towards Arabic and towards foreign languages and that they still have contact with French through the media.

their language choice depends on the setting.

language contact appears to be the main factor that impacts foreign language attrition / maintenance.