The potential implications of Arabic diglossia on the pedagogy of simultaneous interpreting in Algeria

The Algerian society is considered to be diglossic due the prevalence of two linguistic forms:
Standard Arabic (the High variety) and Dialectal Arabic (the Low variety) although diglossia
as a concept is itself under debate with literature suggesting that many countries have a
triglossic or even a multiglossic language. The proposed study investigates the potential impact
of Arabic diglossia on the participants’ perceptions of SI. All of my participants had been SI
students. It further sets out to explore the challenges that Algerian students of simultaneous
interpreting in one of the Algerian universities go through in relation to diglossia during their
interpreting practice. This dissertation addresses the question of how learners can fulfil the
interpreting tasks that require a full mastery of the formal style (Modern Standard Arabic),
without being influenced by the low language (Dialectal Arabic), the language variety that is
used in daily life interactions. The study further explores to what extent course designers of
simultaneous interpreting take into consideration the concept of Diglossia. These research
questions were answered through the lens of a mixed research methodology that included
questionnaires and individual interviews. One of the key findings is that MSA was a significant
challenge according to the participants’ perceptions, whereas it has been perceived that the
foreign language was also a problem. Furthermore, the findings highlight that it was very
challenging for the students to interpret from and into MSA and English as the participants
claimed that they encountered linguistic difficulties in both languages. Despite the vast studies
that were conducted on diglossia in teaching and learning contexts in the last decade,
investigating the impact that diglossia may have on the teaching and learning of simultaneous
interpreting is rarely tackled especially in Algeria, and this is a gap in literature. The findings
of this study have importance because they inform the pedagogy of SI through an exploration
of the SI students’ perceptions when interpreting from and into a diglossic language. Hence, it
is anticipated that the expected outcomes will contribute to raise Algerian teachers and learners’
awareness of the various effects that Arabic diglossia may have on simultaneous interpreting.