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The English language is introduced in Moroccan public schools, which the majority of Moroccan families send their children to, at the last year of secondary education; according to a Aljazeera report only 15% percent of families send their children to private schools. This essay will tackle the problems that public schools students encounter in their English learning process. Morocco’s first language is Arabic and Amazigh, its second language is French, while English is the third language in the country besides Spanish which is also dominant in northern regions of the country. Students of English in Morocco struggle with the effects of both Arabic and French in their language learning. Other main problems include the low chances in the job market and the lack of classroom equipment to make the language learning acquisition possible. Globally, English learners face the interference of L1 on L2 acquisition; in Morocco the case is more complicated. Very young children acquire the Moroccan Arabic before being introduced to Standard Arabic in their 1st grade which mostly coincides with them being six years old. Then, they start learning French at the 3rd grade. English is normally introduced at the last year of secondary school and three years of high school. The mother tongue, Standard Arabic, and French affect the pronunciation and presents some grammatical problems to students. For example, in Arabic the structure of a simple sentence is as follows Verb + Subject + Object while it is not the case in English. Another example is that of adjective-noun in French, as most of the times the adjective comes after the noun; while in English, it is not the case. The differences in vocabulary in French and English present a major problem, especially if the words are spelled the same, but bear different meanings as “demander” and “demand”; or when two words are spelled slightly different but mean the same thing as “exemple” and “example”. The English language is the third language in Morocco if not the fourth behind Spanish. The students are mostly not motivated to learn it for different reasons. French is the language that is mostly needed in the job market, English is not as important. Even if the job is listed in English, the candidate will most likely be asked to have a good level of French. Higher studies are in French unless the student is going to study English in the university. This also affects the motivation of students when they introduced to the English language. English is introduced at a very late stage of studies in public schools. The brain plasticity that normally help children pick up language easily is not there anymore. Students start to think critically of the new language rules which hinder their ability to pick up the language quickly. Moreover, Morocco is an emerging country and the education system is ranked among the 21 worst in the world, according to a 2014 UNESCO report. This means that the EFL classroom will be inadequately equipped with the material that makes is easy to pick up the language. Besides the large classroom which normally size up to 44 students. To conclude, there are many problems that make the English language learning difficult. These problems range from ones that are specific to the country such as education quality to global problems such as the L1 effect on L2 acquisition. Still, there are some signs that English is given more and more importance as it is becoming more as a language of the youth and economy in the country. Students that tend to be motivated to learn English are those who did not pick up French because it presents another chance to be bilingual. Even if the effect of French is clear on English acquisition; it provides some sort of help to teachers as it is not very different from English, especially the script and sentence structure. Most students tend to be motivated in their last year of high school to learn the language as it is one of the main subjects that the baccalaureate examination consists of. The country’s economy is witnessing a radical change and more English is demanded in the job market. There is high demand for English nowadays, there are many English teaching centers and the demand for one to one English is growing.
