 The importance of English in the 21st century Morocco:

v The importance of English in the 21st century Morocco:
«….The improvement of the curricula, the pedagogical methods, the assessment and the orientation, the rehabilitation of school, as well as the reinforcement and the updating of the teaching of languages....»

Lately, the Moroccan government has offered more importance to teaching foreign languages in general and English in particular.

The white-book determines the headlines of the linguistic policy in the Moroccan educational system, in this paper the focus is going to be on the importance of teaching English in Morocco and what causes which convinces Moroccans to invest in this significant field?

Along decades the greatest effort of the ministry of education has been given to the improvement of teaching Arabic, the official language and the mother tongue of the most of Moroccans especially during eighties through the arabisation policy. frankly, French comes second because of many reasons, firstly, France is the first economic partner and the ex- colonizer of Morocco, this fact makes the political and economic Moroccan elite influenced by the french culture along generations. This reality imphasizes the status of French in the Moroccan linguistic landscape.

Recently, English is established as a foreign language to be studied at different levels of the and not only universities and high schools as happened in the past. Today teaching and learning English is an other duty given to the student along his educational life. But what is given to teaching and learning English does not come by chance but it is implied by various conditions inside and outside the country. For instance, the radical changes that occurs on the economic policy of Morocco since it was based on agriculture as a strategic plan for the establishment of a strong economy through producing a big amount of different sorts of food to encounter the increasing demands inside the country and exporting what is still to abroad to get the necessary industrial materials. Unfortunately Morocco fails to gain this kind of balance between the imported products and the exported food.

Many reasons were behind this failure, the change that affects the universal climate which makes Morocco receives small degrees of rain, therefore, the production decreases. Moreover, the price of food in the international market is lower if added to the sharp competition that Morocco faces from dozens powerful economies such as that of Spain or Tunisia are signaling that the economy is ill.

The elements motioned above implies a revision of all the strategic choices in economy to a new field which is considered to be appropriate and productive, it is tourism and other services linked to it such as crafts and tradition exhibitions. Morocco adopts a plan prepared by the ministry of tourism to have 10 millions of tourists from the four corners of the globe each year. Besides, the educational authorities have been mobilized to reform education to prepare the needed well-trained workers that is why the charter of education and training declares that schools and universities should be opened on their socioeconomic environment.

In the other hand, Morocco is ambitious to receive external capitals and companies from U.S.A and E.U to invest in the country in different domains after his agreement with «G.A.T .T agreement» in the year 1994 in Marrakech which allows productions and people transition freely without taxes.

No wonder, the most of tourists and investors whom Morocco invites and to whom Moroccans would like to expose the mountain ,the desert and even the shining sun as a special touristic production. No wonder 90% of them will not speak Arabic, Tamazight or even French, they are going to use «the lingua franca of today» which is English and more English, that is why I'm optimistic about the future of this language at least along an other century??