Arabic

Introduction to Colloquial and Standard Arabic (Basic Arabic)

This course takes an integrating approach in teaching Arabic, combining both Modern Standard Arabic (hereafter MSA) and colloquial (Palestinian) Arabic (hereafter PA) in order to reflect the use of the language by native speakers. The goal of this course is to introduce students to the basic foundations of both speaking an Arabic dialect and reading in MSA. Please see the course description here.

Students will be provided with the following skills:

1. Basic grammar and vocabulary of both MSA and PA. Focus will be put on the shared aspects of these two varieties of Arabic, as well as the differences between them. The first lessons will be dedicated to learning the Arabic alphabet while introducing basic vocabulary and structures.
2. Understanding and actively participating in basic conversations.
3. Reading and translating basic texts.

This course meets five days per week for 3 academic hours each meeting, Sunday through Thursday, and awards 4 college credits.

The course will serve as a basis for further courses. Emphasis is put on communication and on developing proficiency in the language by using it in meaningful contexts: greetings, education, home and family, work, politics and culture. Please see the Basic Arabic course description here.

Intermediate Colloquial and Modern Standard Arabic (Advance Arabic)

Course Description and Goals

The goal of this course is to provide students with more advanced skills for speaking, reading and writing in Arabic.  This course takes an integrative approach to teaching Arabic, combining both Modern Standard Arabic (hereafter MSA) and colloquial (Palestinian) Arabic (hereafter CA) in order to reflect the use of the language by native speakers. Students will focus on acquiring more vocabulary and knowledge of the fundamental grammatical structures in order for them to attain a higher level of comprehension and communication.

Students should be able to communicate about different topics such as culture, politics and daily life activities like shopping and dining. Students will be exposed to a variety of texts from different fields and will acquire advances tools to read and understand them.

 Course requirements

• Assignments and class participation (10%)
•  Daily quizzes (oral and written) (15%)
• Oral presentations (role play, dialogue, monologue) (15%)

• Final Exam (oral and written) (60%)

Selected References

Note that the course does not follow a specific book but is based on various sources, including the following:

Combined Intensive Language

Students may choose to combine the basic Arabic course with the Track 2 Hebrew language course for a total of 6 credits.