The teaching of grammar in Arabic countries

Abstract

The Arabs know a long grammatical tradition that flourished between 800 and 1500 C.E. approximately. Nowadays, pupils in Arabic countries also learn Indo-European languages as English and French and come into contact with their appropriate grammatical systems. In this thesis, I will explore the way that grammar is taught in high schools in Morocco. Does the educational system in high schools still use the ‘traditional, Arabic’ grammatical system, the ‘Western/Greek’ system or a hybrid form of these? And if they use a type of hybrid form, how are the elements of the two traditions combined and are they combined in an appropriate way, i.e. correctly applying the terminology of both traditions and not confusing them? To investigate this, I looked at the explanation of the difference between the nominal and verbal sentences in Moroccan textbooks of MSA, used for educational purposes in high school and by interviewing students.