The Teaching of Literatures in English VII

The Case of Algerian Universities

Issue?
How is knowledge in literature transmitted?
What are the didactic parameters that

determine the particularity of its transmission? Which kind of policy dictates that transmission? What are the characteristics of the Algerian
University Context?

Literature lectures: three antagonistic alternatives The profile of graduation and post-

graduation→ Quantity
The programme of the Ministry of Higher

Education→ Quantity
The Student’s career worries→ Efficiency

(Lakhdar Barka,
1990)

On the need to depict three profiles The TEACHER→ Who is he?
The INSTITUTION→ What

does it aim at?
The STUDENT→

Teachers’
Profile
1970s till mid 1980s→ A Quality-oriented system

(graduation + sophisticated post-graduate degrees)
BUT.

From (1971 to 1974)→ The first ‘Reforms’ at

university

↓
Pedagogical Divergence
↓
lecturer vs. students and programmes

Two Philosophies behind Quality
The licence ‘Ancien Régime’
 Rooted in the French system of education
 Gave more weight to
The knowledge of the FL;
- civilization
-culture
-history of ideas….
Unconscious process of comparative and contrastive cultural anthropology ↓
Licence des Belles Lettres

Quality as a criterion
The highly specialised post-graduate training
↓
the acquisition of an indepth knowledge in a particular field
↓
antagonizes with the rather shallow initiation level the institution requires from him.

The Institution: New Targets
Quantity→ More teachers needed for the

Secondary schools
Utility→ English is a means to have access to documents especially in Science and
Technology( the Market’s requirement)
BUT.
- The same infrastructure
- The same staf
- The same equipment…..

Number of undergraduate students in Algerian universities: available at www.triplehelix5.com.
1960

1970

1980

1990

2000

2001

2004

1137

12243

57445

18135
0

46608
4

55280
4

70000
0

Syllabus: Major drawbacks
No synchronic neither diachronic completion
No coherent continuum in