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Driss Ridouani

Moulay Ismail University, Meknes, Morocco, English Department, Faculty Member

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I am an associate professor at Moulay Ismail University, School of Arts and Humanities, Meknes, Morocco. I taught English literature and other subjects for more than 22 years. I am interested in different researches and topics, especially culture, communication and fictional writings.
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Moulay Ismail University, Faculty of Letters and Humanities.

Mohammed Moubtassime

University of Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah

Nattaporn Luangpipat

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Virginia Tech

Kastamonu University

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Papers by Driss Ridouani

Factors Affecting Students’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs in Moroccan Higher Education

Journal of Language and Education, 2020

Self-efficacy, or confidence in one’s ability to do a task, is a key element that affects student... more Self-efficacy, or confidence in one’s ability to do a task, is a key element that affects students’ motivation and performance. For that reason, the main purpose of this study was to collect specific information about students’ self-efficacy and factors affecting it. This includes comparing the differences between three Moroccan universities representing public and private institutions in terms of students’ self-efficacy. A sample of 365 undergraduate students responded to the questionnaire on self-efficacy for self-regulated learning on a 5-point Likert scale. The findings demonstrate that students' level of self-efficacy is moderate. With regard to the differences between the three universities, a slight difference was found in favor of the private one. Meanwhile, third-year students reported greater self-efficacy than first and second-year students. However, no statistically significant differences were found between male and female students. More importantly, the results rev...

The Representation of Arabs and Muslims in Western Media

RUTA: revista universitària de treballs acadèmics, 2011

Every subject, whatever its objective may be, does not stem from nothing, nor does it come out of... more Every subject, whatever its objective may be, does not stem from nothing, nor does it come out of the blue, but it is the product or rather the synthesis of different criteria that instigate its various points and blend them into one single channel. This paper does not indeed diverge away from the aforementioned framework as it outlines the thesis and antithesis which stand respectively for the Western media and Arab and Muslim thinkers. At the same time, this paper sheds light, though laconically, on the way Arabs and Muslims are represented in the Western arts, aiming at drawing an analogy between the past view and the present conceptualization. The objective of juxtaposing two different eras is to demonstrate that the West had been perpetuating the stereotypical images of Arabs and Muslims and that the sole difference between the past and the present lies chiefly in the means and not in the content. This article also seeks to outline the way Muslims and Arabs are conceptualized in the Western media together with the drastic effect which scars the Western people. The main concern will focus on the analysis of the distorted images, fabricated views, overgeneralization which typically characterize the Western representation of Muslims with reference to some particular incidents chiefly the Gulf War, the bombing of Oklahoma and the bombardment of Twin Towers. Also this paper is the outcome of different sources namely articles, books, movies, and cartoons. To give the devil his due and also not to disapprove of biased views and then be partial, my reading and analysis comprises both Western and Arab thinkers and it includes also biased and moderate or rather fair views of Western media. The Western representation of Muslims and Arabs is not a recent fabrication but it had been operational and deep-rooted in the West conceptualization ever since the first contacts with Arabs and Muslims. Down to the Middle Ages, especially during the Crusade Wars and along the Arabs expansion in Europe until the very days of the Third Millennium, the West promotes almost the same stereotypes for Arabs and Muslims. Whether the contact took place in the foregone centuries or it happens recently, the West preserve a persisting conceptualization of the Arabs and Muslims as an alien "Other" or rather "Enemy", though both the means of communication and ascribing terminologies have known some changes. Edward Said once noted that the West promotes a deep-rooted hatred for Islam: The term Islam as it is used today seems to mean one simple thing, but in fact is part fiction, part ideological label, part minimal designation of a religion called Islam. Today Islam is peculiarly traumatic news in the West. During the past few years, especially since events in Iran caught European and American attention so strongly, the media have therefore covered Islam: they have portrayed it, characterized it, analyzed it, given instant courses on it, and consequently they have made it known. But this coverage is misleadingly full, and a great deal in this energetic coverage is based on far from objective material. In many instances Islam has licensed not only patent inaccuracy, but also expressions of unrestrained ethnocentrism, cultural, and even racial hatred, deep yet paradoxically free-floating hostility (Agha 2). If the West resorts to fictional and non-fictional writings or to travel literature and annals in earlier confrontations with Arabs and Muslims, recently the West has recourse to Media. The ascribed terms to the Arabs, though they change in accordance with times, not surprisingly, they converge in disparagement. For example, in the past Arabs and Muslims were largely recognized in the West as "erotic", "primitive", "ignorant", "slave traders" among other many derogatory terms. Lately, the terms such as "terrorist", "fundamentalist" and "blood-thirsty" are the terms that are over-generally ascribed to the Arabs and Muslims. Jack G. Shaheen recapitulates Esposito (Islamic Threat, pp. 203, 180.) and affirms that: Research verifies that lurid and insidious depictions of Arabs are staple fare. The Arab Muslim continues to surface as the threatening cultural "Other." As John Esposito says, "Fear of the Green Menace [green being the color of Islam] may well replace that of the Red Menace of world communism.. .. Islam is often equated with holy war and hatred, fanaticism and violence, intolerance and the oppression of women.

Multilingualism, Multiculturalism and Globalization

Language or rather the national language-mother tongue-plays a crucial role in the establishment ... more Language or rather the national language-mother tongue-plays a crucial role in the establishment and preservation of national and group identity as it constitutes the storage area where the social and cultural values and the medium of the historical memory usually crop up. Surprisingly, in response to the crucial imperative demands of the third millennium-communication technologies come first-the prerequisite of the educational processes necessitates the learning of other languages namely French and English. However, learning a second language is not an end in itself, in the sense that it remains confined within the framework of being opened to others languages, but it goes beyond this frontier to assume and integrate the cultures that are affiliated in these languages. Added to the process of learning a second language, advanced communication technologies enhances the dissemination and implantation of Western culture. In accordance with postmodern theorists, the production of infor...

Assessing Moroccan University Students' English Learning Motivation: A Comparative Study

Advances in Language and Literary Studies, Feb 1, 2018

This study seeks to survey whether students are motivated to learn English or not and to evaluate... more This study seeks to survey whether students are motivated to learn English or not and to evaluate the differences within and between three most known universities in Morocco, involving a private one, in terms of students' English learning motivation. Moreover, factors that make a student more motivated to learn English were investigated. This study examines motivation of university students according to their institution, gender, and other variables. Assessment of university students' motivation was by scores on items from the Academic Motivation Scale. The sample consisted of 329 undergraduate students from three different Moroccan universities. The most important finding was that participants in general are quite motivated to learn English with a score of (M = 3.80) with regard to the overall score using a 5-point Likert scale, and a higher level of introjected extrinsic motivation (M = 4.11), which means that they do such tasks because they are supposed or asked to do them. Moreover, factors such as how students consider university, their location during the academic year, and their decision behind choosing to go to university were found to affect students' motivation.

Modern Moroccan Music is a Westernized Version

With the advancement of means of communication especially in the modern era, we have become more ... more With the advancement of means of communication especially in the modern era, we have become more aware of the scope where nations constitute an ineluctable part system of the world at large. In fact, what is nowadays called individual societies and considered as independent entities do not exist any more for their local distinctive standard can be recognized only within the global framework. Hence, besieged and governed by mass media, the world at large has been transformed into what McLuhan cogently termed “Global Village”, paving the way for the expansion of foreign powers over the poor societies. In order to gain insight into an individual society, we would consider it as an integrated part of the global whole together with the external, say Western, factors that forcibly influence its fundamental principles. The scope of the impact is so wide and its nature is so various that it encompasses all nations together with their institutions. This paper is an attempt to investigate the...

The Discourse of Organizations’ Brands and Political Slogans A Critical Discourse Analysis , 2019

Ever since advertisement and propaganda are recognized as effective means of communication, the o... more Ever since advertisement and propaganda are recognized as effective means of communication, the organizations and political parties put forward different slogans in order to publicize their main objectives. The slogans differ from one organization to another and from one political party to another, depending on the backgrounds they establish and the products they tend to market nationwide and worldwide. This article is an attempt to investigate the language used in the slogans of leading companies and powerful parties. By analyzing some slogans taken from both organizations and political parties, the purpose of the study is an attempt to outline how the chosen words and structures contribute to the creation of specific meanings and representations; in addition to the created meanings in the slogans, the analysis seeks also to investigate how the concealed ideologies are put forward. The study of this article is framed around Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis, focusing mainly on the dialectical framework with the objective to decipher the sociocultural dimensions of the slogans. The analysis will display the purpose behind the use of certain language and the aim of structuring in specific patterns.

Multilingualism, Multiculturalism and Globalization

Abstract Language or rather the national language -mother tongue - plays a crucial role in the es... more Abstract
Language or rather the national language -mother tongue - plays a crucial role in the establishment and preservation of national and group identity as it constitutes the storage area where the social and cultural values and the medium of the historical memory usually crop up. Surprisingly, in response to the crucial imperative demands of the third millennium -communication technologies come first - the prerequisite of the educational processes necessitates the learning of other languages namely French and English. However, learning a second language is not an end in itself, in the sense that it remains confined within the framework of being opened to others languages, but it goes beyond this frontier to assume and integrate the cultures that are affiliated in these languages. Added to the process of learning a second language, advanced communication technologies enhances the dissemination and implantation of Western culture. In accordance with postmodern theorists, the production of information is associated with power benefit. Far from being the outcome of a neutral reality as it was the case of the modern Enlightenment, knowledge has a dynamic and imperative objective that is usually launched by people with more power than other people. In the vein of empowerment, those in power shape the curricular agendas; determine how endowment is allocated, and specify the prospects of the recent and the future hegemony over the subaltern. This paper is an attempt to outline the interconnectedness of the three-pronged relationship between multilingualism, multiculturalism and globalization and the way they affect each other.
Keywords: multilingualism, multiculturalism, monolinguilism, monoculturalism, heteronomy, globalization, lingua franca

The Impact of Western Style on Moroccan Popular Music

With the advancement of means of communication especially in the modern era, we have become more ... more With the advancement of means of communication especially in the modern era, we have become more aware of the scope where nations constitute an ineluctable part system of the world at large. In fact, what is nowadays called individual societies and considered as independent entities do not exist any more, for their local distinctive standard can be recognized only within the global framework. Hence, besieged and governed by mass media, the world at large has been transformed into what McLuhan cogently termed "Global Village", paving the way for the expansion of foreign powers over the poor societies. In order to gain insight into an individual society, we would consider it as an integrated part of the global whole together with the external, say Western, factors that forcibly influence its fundamental principles. The scope of the impact is so wide and its nature is so various that it encompasses all nations together with their institutions. This paper is an attempt to investigate the way the cultural framework of Moroccan society is "Westernized", drawing on the popular music and the changes that have shaped both its content and form. In the same vein, scholars of different interest and aim, chiefly Moroccan ones, underline the process of transformation that has been incessantly happening in popular music, pointing especially to the integration and

Drafts by Driss Ridouani

Space Reflects an Atmosphere of Melancholy

The texts of the modern era and the subsequent ones free, indeed, space from the constraints of m... more The texts of the modern era and the subsequent ones free, indeed, space from the constraints of marginalization and integrate it in their structure. Space, therefore, like any structural device of the discourse, is rendered a major function in the texts, contributing greatly to the development and the making up of their theme(s). In this regard, whether space delineates open/closed or high/low areas or places it is not restricted in the superficial and external part of the narrative discourse; it widens, on the contrary, its scope to encompass its significance. Against this view, we will try to see to what extent Samuel Beckett's Endgame integrates space in its structure and makes of it a functional technical device. Space in Endgame is becoming a background against which a melancholic view of the modern world is highlighted, outlining sombre perception of existence after a fatefully destructive war. The notion of melancholy both in arts and literature has not been recently broached and proliferated, but it was recognized as a ubiquitous phenomenon centuries ago. Some scholars argue that melancholy had been a common feature in the Middle Ages and widely known for its multifaceted dimension, ranging from sombre narrative discourse description to dismal and grey depressing colours in paintings. To contextualize melancholy within the framework of psychological context, Sigmumd Freud argued in The History of the Psychoanalytic Movement: Papers on Metapsychology and Others that: The distinguishing mental features of melancholia are a profoundly painful dejection, cessation of interest in the outside world, loss of the

Factors Affecting Students’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs in Moroccan Higher Education

Journal of Language and Education, 2020

Self-efficacy, or confidence in one’s ability to do a task, is a key element that affects student... more Self-efficacy, or confidence in one’s ability to do a task, is a key element that affects students’ motivation and performance. For that reason, the main purpose of this study was to collect specific information about students’ self-efficacy and factors affecting it. This includes comparing the differences between three Moroccan universities representing public and private institutions in terms of students’ self-efficacy. A sample of 365 undergraduate students responded to the questionnaire on self-efficacy for self-regulated learning on a 5-point Likert scale. The findings demonstrate that students' level of self-efficacy is moderate. With regard to the differences between the three universities, a slight difference was found in favor of the private one. Meanwhile, third-year students reported greater self-efficacy than first and second-year students. However, no statistically significant differences were found between male and female students. More importantly, the results rev...

The Representation of Arabs and Muslims in Western Media

RUTA: revista universitària de treballs acadèmics, 2011

Every subject, whatever its objective may be, does not stem from nothing, nor does it come out of... more Every subject, whatever its objective may be, does not stem from nothing, nor does it come out of the blue, but it is the product or rather the synthesis of different criteria that instigate its various points and blend them into one single channel. This paper does not indeed diverge away from the aforementioned framework as it outlines the thesis and antithesis which stand respectively for the Western media and Arab and Muslim thinkers. At the same time, this paper sheds light, though laconically, on the way Arabs and Muslims are represented in the Western arts, aiming at drawing an analogy between the past view and the present conceptualization. The objective of juxtaposing two different eras is to demonstrate that the West had been perpetuating the stereotypical images of Arabs and Muslims and that the sole difference between the past and the present lies chiefly in the means and not in the content. This article also seeks to outline the way Muslims and Arabs are conceptualized in the Western media together with the drastic effect which scars the Western people. The main concern will focus on the analysis of the distorted images, fabricated views, overgeneralization which typically characterize the Western representation of Muslims with reference to some particular incidents chiefly the Gulf War, the bombing of Oklahoma and the bombardment of Twin Towers. Also this paper is the outcome of different sources namely articles, books, movies, and cartoons. To give the devil his due and also not to disapprove of biased views and then be partial, my reading and analysis comprises both Western and Arab thinkers and it includes also biased and moderate or rather fair views of Western media. The Western representation of Muslims and Arabs is not a recent fabrication but it had been operational and deep-rooted in the West conceptualization ever since the first contacts with Arabs and Muslims. Down to the Middle Ages, especially during the Crusade Wars and along the Arabs expansion in Europe until the very days of the Third Millennium, the West promotes almost the same stereotypes for Arabs and Muslims. Whether the contact took place in the foregone centuries or it happens recently, the West preserve a persisting conceptualization of the Arabs and Muslims as an alien "Other" or rather "Enemy", though both the means of communication and ascribing terminologies have known some changes. Edward Said once noted that the West promotes a deep-rooted hatred for Islam: The term Islam as it is used today seems to mean one simple thing, but in fact is part fiction, part ideological label, part minimal designation of a religion called Islam. Today Islam is peculiarly traumatic news in the West. During the past few years, especially since events in Iran caught European and American attention so strongly, the media have therefore covered Islam: they have portrayed it, characterized it, analyzed it, given instant courses on it, and consequently they have made it known. But this coverage is misleadingly full, and a great deal in this energetic coverage is based on far from objective material. In many instances Islam has licensed not only patent inaccuracy, but also expressions of unrestrained ethnocentrism, cultural, and even racial hatred, deep yet paradoxically free-floating hostility (Agha 2). If the West resorts to fictional and non-fictional writings or to travel literature and annals in earlier confrontations with Arabs and Muslims, recently the West has recourse to Media. The ascribed terms to the Arabs, though they change in accordance with times, not surprisingly, they converge in disparagement. For example, in the past Arabs and Muslims were largely recognized in the West as "erotic", "primitive", "ignorant", "slave traders" among other many derogatory terms. Lately, the terms such as "terrorist", "fundamentalist" and "blood-thirsty" are the terms that are over-generally ascribed to the Arabs and Muslims. Jack G. Shaheen recapitulates Esposito (Islamic Threat, pp. 203, 180.) and affirms that: Research verifies that lurid and insidious depictions of Arabs are staple fare. The Arab Muslim continues to surface as the threatening cultural "Other." As John Esposito says, "Fear of the Green Menace [green being the color of Islam] may well replace that of the Red Menace of world communism.. .. Islam is often equated with holy war and hatred, fanaticism and violence, intolerance and the oppression of women.

Multilingualism, Multiculturalism and Globalization

Language or rather the national language-mother tongue-plays a crucial role in the establishment ... more Language or rather the national language-mother tongue-plays a crucial role in the establishment and preservation of national and group identity as it constitutes the storage area where the social and cultural values and the medium of the historical memory usually crop up. Surprisingly, in response to the crucial imperative demands of the third millennium-communication technologies come first-the prerequisite of the educational processes necessitates the learning of other languages namely French and English. However, learning a second language is not an end in itself, in the sense that it remains confined within the framework of being opened to others languages, but it goes beyond this frontier to assume and integrate the cultures that are affiliated in these languages. Added to the process of learning a second language, advanced communication technologies enhances the dissemination and implantation of Western culture. In accordance with postmodern theorists, the production of infor...

Assessing Moroccan University Students' English Learning Motivation: A Comparative Study

Advances in Language and Literary Studies, Feb 1, 2018

This study seeks to survey whether students are motivated to learn English or not and to evaluate... more This study seeks to survey whether students are motivated to learn English or not and to evaluate the differences within and between three most known universities in Morocco, involving a private one, in terms of students' English learning motivation. Moreover, factors that make a student more motivated to learn English were investigated. This study examines motivation of university students according to their institution, gender, and other variables. Assessment of university students' motivation was by scores on items from the Academic Motivation Scale. The sample consisted of 329 undergraduate students from three different Moroccan universities. The most important finding was that participants in general are quite motivated to learn English with a score of (M = 3.80) with regard to the overall score using a 5-point Likert scale, and a higher level of introjected extrinsic motivation (M = 4.11), which means that they do such tasks because they are supposed or asked to do them. Moreover, factors such as how students consider university, their location during the academic year, and their decision behind choosing to go to university were found to affect students' motivation.

Modern Moroccan Music is a Westernized Version

With the advancement of means of communication especially in the modern era, we have become more ... more With the advancement of means of communication especially in the modern era, we have become more aware of the scope where nations constitute an ineluctable part system of the world at large. In fact, what is nowadays called individual societies and considered as independent entities do not exist any more for their local distinctive standard can be recognized only within the global framework. Hence, besieged and governed by mass media, the world at large has been transformed into what McLuhan cogently termed “Global Village”, paving the way for the expansion of foreign powers over the poor societies. In order to gain insight into an individual society, we would consider it as an integrated part of the global whole together with the external, say Western, factors that forcibly influence its fundamental principles. The scope of the impact is so wide and its nature is so various that it encompasses all nations together with their institutions. This paper is an attempt to investigate the...

The Discourse of Organizations’ Brands and Political Slogans A Critical Discourse Analysis , 2019

Ever since advertisement and propaganda are recognized as effective means of communication, the o... more Ever since advertisement and propaganda are recognized as effective means of communication, the organizations and political parties put forward different slogans in order to publicize their main objectives. The slogans differ from one organization to another and from one political party to another, depending on the backgrounds they establish and the products they tend to market nationwide and worldwide. This article is an attempt to investigate the language used in the slogans of leading companies and powerful parties. By analyzing some slogans taken from both organizations and political parties, the purpose of the study is an attempt to outline how the chosen words and structures contribute to the creation of specific meanings and representations; in addition to the created meanings in the slogans, the analysis seeks also to investigate how the concealed ideologies are put forward. The study of this article is framed around Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis, focusing mainly on the dialectical framework with the objective to decipher the sociocultural dimensions of the slogans. The analysis will display the purpose behind the use of certain language and the aim of structuring in specific patterns.

Multilingualism, Multiculturalism and Globalization

Abstract Language or rather the national language -mother tongue - plays a crucial role in the es... more Abstract
Language or rather the national language -mother tongue - plays a crucial role in the establishment and preservation of national and group identity as it constitutes the storage area where the social and cultural values and the medium of the historical memory usually crop up. Surprisingly, in response to the crucial imperative demands of the third millennium -communication technologies come first - the prerequisite of the educational processes necessitates the learning of other languages namely French and English. However, learning a second language is not an end in itself, in the sense that it remains confined within the framework of being opened to others languages, but it goes beyond this frontier to assume and integrate the cultures that are affiliated in these languages. Added to the process of learning a second language, advanced communication technologies enhances the dissemination and implantation of Western culture. In accordance with postmodern theorists, the production of information is associated with power benefit. Far from being the outcome of a neutral reality as it was the case of the modern Enlightenment, knowledge has a dynamic and imperative objective that is usually launched by people with more power than other people. In the vein of empowerment, those in power shape the curricular agendas; determine how endowment is allocated, and specify the prospects of the recent and the future hegemony over the subaltern. This paper is an attempt to outline the interconnectedness of the three-pronged relationship between multilingualism, multiculturalism and globalization and the way they affect each other.
Keywords: multilingualism, multiculturalism, monolinguilism, monoculturalism, heteronomy, globalization, lingua franca

The Impact of Western Style on Moroccan Popular Music

With the advancement of means of communication especially in the modern era, we have become more ... more With the advancement of means of communication especially in the modern era, we have become more aware of the scope where nations constitute an ineluctable part system of the world at large. In fact, what is nowadays called individual societies and considered as independent entities do not exist any more, for their local distinctive standard can be recognized only within the global framework. Hence, besieged and governed by mass media, the world at large has been transformed into what McLuhan cogently termed "Global Village", paving the way for the expansion of foreign powers over the poor societies. In order to gain insight into an individual society, we would consider it as an integrated part of the global whole together with the external, say Western, factors that forcibly influence its fundamental principles. The scope of the impact is so wide and its nature is so various that it encompasses all nations together with their institutions. This paper is an attempt to investigate the way the cultural framework of Moroccan society is "Westernized", drawing on the popular music and the changes that have shaped both its content and form. In the same vein, scholars of different interest and aim, chiefly Moroccan ones, underline the process of transformation that has been incessantly happening in popular music, pointing especially to the integration and

Space Reflects an Atmosphere of Melancholy

The texts of the modern era and the subsequent ones free, indeed, space from the constraints of m... more The texts of the modern era and the subsequent ones free, indeed, space from the constraints of marginalization and integrate it in their structure. Space, therefore, like any structural device of the discourse, is rendered a major function in the texts, contributing greatly to the development and the making up of their theme(s). In this regard, whether space delineates open/closed or high/low areas or places it is not restricted in the superficial and external part of the narrative discourse; it widens, on the contrary, its scope to encompass its significance. Against this view, we will try to see to what extent Samuel Beckett's Endgame integrates space in its structure and makes of it a functional technical device. Space in Endgame is becoming a background against which a melancholic view of the modern world is highlighted, outlining sombre perception of existence after a fatefully destructive war. The notion of melancholy both in arts and literature has not been recently broached and proliferated, but it was recognized as a ubiquitous phenomenon centuries ago. Some scholars argue that melancholy had been a common feature in the Middle Ages and widely known for its multifaceted dimension, ranging from sombre narrative discourse description to dismal and grey depressing colours in paintings. To contextualize melancholy within the framework of psychological context, Sigmumd Freud argued in The History of the Psychoanalytic Movement: Papers on Metapsychology and Others that: The distinguishing mental features of melancholia are a profoundly painful dejection, cessation of interest in the outside world, loss of the