ARAB

The first quarter of Intermediate Arabic

Spoken Levantine Arabic is a proficiency-based course designed to develop the linguistic skills necessary for personal day-to-day life. The course focuses on spoken rather than Standard written Arabic, and will therefore target primarily the oral/aural skills. Through the knowledge of Modern Standard Arabic and the introduction of colloquial vocabulary, expressions and grammar, the course will build the students’ competence in spoken Arabic. Students will also be introduced to the Levantine culture of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine.

Elementary Arabic is a 3-course, year-long sequence intended for complete beginners. It targets both literacy in the formal, standard, written form of Arabic (fuSHa), and also integrates the spoken dialect (‘ammiyyah) when needed. Through in-class practice and intensive homework projects, students will gain a solid foundation in the four skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening). At the end of the sequence, students will gain basic functional fluency on a variety of personal topics (self, family, studies, location, daily activities, etc.). These courses adopt a project-based approach to learning, and therefore meet three times a week for 80 minutes.

Advanced Readings in Arabic - 3rd quarter

This sequence concentrates on the acquisition of speaking, reading, and aural skills in modern formal Arabic.

ARAB 20103 is the spring quarter continuation of the Intermediate Arabic sequence that began with ARAB 20101 last fall, and continued with ARAB 20102 in the winter. We will continue to work through the second half of Al-Kitaab Part 2. As in any language course, we address all four of the fundamental skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. A particular focus of this sequence, however, is ensuring that students have a solid, comprehensive understanding of the rules of Arabic syntax. In addition to readings and exercises from the textbook, we will increasingly make use of articles from Arabic-language news media.

This sequence concentrates on the acquisition of speaking, reading, and aural skills in modern formal Arabic.

This is a course for the advanced student of Arabic, focusing on improving listening comprehension and instilling an awareness of the social associations accompanying different speech styles. Through intensive exposure to a variety of authentic oral texts (talk shows, songs, soap operas, films, news shows, ads, comedy skits, etc.), students will delve into current social and political issues, as well as become sensitive to code switching between MSA and colloquial (all the major dialects). Through these texts, we will examine the themes of diglossia and code-switching; gendered discourse; urban-rural differences; class differences; youth language. A heavily aural course, class activities will involve student presentations (group and solo), discussion groups, and a final oral presentation project.

Arabic Through Extensive Reading
In this course, students will read a whole work, most often, but not exclusively, a novel or play. Nevertheless, the course advances student proficiency in all 4 skills.
Naturally, reading is a central activity of this course. Students in the Intermediate High range* can expect to either feel more solidly comfortable in that level, or to go beyond it to the Advanced level. Students will improve their writing through a number of essays/reflections on the novel.
The course is taught in Arabic, so, students will be negotiating meaning amongst themselves by discussing the novel. In addition, the presentational mode will be exercised in a series of prepared class presentations. To improve their listening skills, students will work on video materials connected to the novel, testing their abilities through worksheets.
While no new grammar will be introduced in a formal manner, as students read the novel and use the writing book, they will be reviewing grammar studied earlier.

In addition to the novel, students will benefit from guest speakers in our classroom.

Third quarter of Classical High Intermediate Arabic