In this article, we explore the issue of Tamazight literacy, aiming to highlight the facilitating and hindering factors that influence the learning of reading and writing in Tamazight, specifically in Morocco’s educational context. In this context, we elaborate on the impacts of two opposing factors: one facilitating and the other hindering (the independent variables) in Tamazight literacy (the dependent variable) in general, and in Moroccan schools in particular, using a descriptive-analytical approach. While the orthographic transparency of Tamazight (1st independent variable) serves as a facilitating factor in easing and enhancing literacy learning, its reading-poor environment (2nd independent variable) presents a hindering factor and a significant obstacle.

We present the features of the orthographic transparency of Tamazight (shallow orthography), where phonemes and graphemes correspond directly in a way that helps facilitate its learning (orthographic depth hypothesis). In contrast, we highlight the constraint that hinders the progress of Tamazight literacy, embodied in the literacy-poor environment, due to the marginalization of Tamazight in the political, educational, and social landscape of Morocco. This marginalization significantly reduces opportunities for learners to be exposed to Tamazight, particularly in its written and read forms, thereby diminishing the positive effects of its orthographic transparency. Therefore, we advocate for enriching the reading environment for learners to enhance the teaching and learning of Tamazight.