English is taught and described as a foreign language in the Algerian educational system. Recently, in the 2022/2023 school year, it has been introduced in the Algerian primary schools, and, in the same year, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research calls its institutions to begin gradually introducing it as the language of instruction in higher education. Therefore, it is indispensable to rethink and draw a new map for English language teaching/learning in Algeria, in the light of the recent developments. Hence, before making reforms and designing new textbooks of English for the primary, middle, and secondary education, the current ones should be studied and critically analyzed.
English is introduced in the primary school and goes on till the last year of secondary education. Algerian authorities prepared national programs for primary, middle, and secondary education to cope with the scientific and technological development in the world and. However, these programs have not always led to satisfactory output and learning outcomes. Therefore, curriculum, syllabus design, textbooks, teaching/learning materials, and teaching methods need to be revisited, revised, evaluated, and adapted to meet the 21st century needs and requirements as well as the local requirements and the socio-economic model of our country.
The curriculum provides the design and the contents of the input; the syllabus provides the projects, units, and sequences under which the content is organized; and the textbook provides the required teaching/learning materials in order to achieve a given output. Consequently, designing and developing appropriate curricula, syllabi and textbooks is very significant for the effectiveness of the teaching/ learning process.
In this regard, the Research Laboratory on Language Didactics at the Messaoud Zeghar Teacher Education College of Sétif will organize a national conference on “The Algerian English Curricula, Syllabi, and Textbooks in the Primary, Middle, and Secondary Education: A critical perspective”. This conference aims at evaluating the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching practices, at the level of the pedagogical curricula, the textbooks in use and the syllabi taught in the Algerian middle and high schools. It seeks to explore the theoretical and practical aspects of EFL teaching situation in the Algerian primary, middle, and high schools through inviting and promoting foreign language educators, experts, language researchers, curriculum developers and syllabus designers, and policy makers (and other stakeholders) to revisit, revise, assess, and evaluate the current Algerian EFL teaching situation in primary, middle, and high schools. This could be achieved by focusing on innovative research intended to improve the quality of the Algerian English language education and face the challenges of the 21st century globalized world.