3.4. Prospects of adopting English and Arabic at
science higher education university institutions
3.4.1. Prospect of adopting English in education
As a response to the closed-ended question «if you were
in charge of education in Tunisia, would you teach science and technology in
English?», 48% of the investigated participants claimed that they
«agree» in comparison to 45% who did not. Actually, 26% percent of
those who refuse such a decision «disagree» and 19% of them hold a
strong view ticking «totally disagree». Indifferent students did not
exceed 7% as Figure 12 below indicates.
Totally disagree
Indifferent
Disagree
Agree
Figure 12: The prospects of adopting English
0 20 40 60
7
19
26
48
Number of Students and percentage
The reasons behind such rates were measured when students were
asked to illustrate their choices, as it is synthesised in Table 4 below. In
fact, those who agreed with the idea of adopting English claimed that
«English is important» (50.9%). Students who totally disagreed with
the idea reported either that it is «a problem of organisation as students
are used to French» (27.2%) or provided no reason for such a choice
(0.9%). Mere disagreement concerns 16.3% who claimed that there is an
«absence of command in English». It is notable that 4.5% of the
students claimed they are indifferent to such issue.
Table 4: Reasons concerning adopting English
|
Responses
|
Totally disagree
|
Disagree
|
Agree
|
Indifferent
|
|
Reasons
|
A problem
of
organisation
|
No reason
|
English
deficiency
|
English is
important
|
Do not
care
|
|
Number of
arguments
|
30
|
1
|
18
|
56
|
5
|
|
Total
|
110
|
|
percentage
|
27.2%
|
0.9%
|
16.3%
|
50.9%
|
4.5%
|
3.4.2. Prospect of adopting Arabic
Responding to the closed-ended question «if you were in
charge of education in Tunisia, would you teach science and technology in
Arabic?» 86% of the students rejected the idea; among those, 64% selected
«totally disagree» and 22% selected
«disagree». Concerning this question, there were no
«indifferent» students (0%) and those who selected «agree»
represented only 14% of the participants as it is illustrated in Figure 13
below.
Figure 13: Prospect of adopting Arabic
Agree
Disagree
Totally disagree Indifferent
0%
14%
64%
22%
When students were asked to provide the reasons for their
choices, 48.6% of the total number of the arguments (115) concerned the idea
that «Arabic is not a language of science», and 21% that «Arabic
is of no help when communicating internationally.» 13% is the rate of the
arguments that such an act will create «a problem of organisation, as
students are used to French.» The same figure (13%) is of «Arabic is
our mother tongue,» which those who accepted the idea said. 1.7% of the
arguments provided concerned those who refuse the adoption of Arabic for
«no reason» and the same figure goes for who refuse it because it
«is boring».
Table 5: Students' views about the prospect of teaching
science in Arabic
|
Responses
|
Indifference
|
Refusal
|
Acceptance
|
|
Reasons
|
No reason
|
Arabic is
boring
|
Arabic is not a language of
science
|
A problem of
organisation
|
Arabic is not an
international language
|
Arabic is our mother tongue
|
|
Number of arguments
|
2
|
2
|
56
|
15
|
25
|
15
|
|
Total arguments
|
115
|
|
Percentage
|
1.7%
|
1.7%
|
48.6%
|
13%
|
21.7%
|
13%
|
| 
