The Arabic Language major sequence enables students to acquire valuable skills pertaining to the use of Arabic in a communicative way, as well as an understanding of the Arabic culture. It trains students to achieve communicative competence in four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It also prepares students to function at different levels within the Arabic speaking societies and to interact with people. In the first year, students undertaking Introductory Arabic 1 and Introductory Arabic 2 develop basic competences in both written and oral grammatical patterns, both orally and in writing, using Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), and learn to interact in limited aspects of everyday life situations. Emphasis is on mastering the Arabic sound system and pronunciation.

This course extends from Introductory Arabic 1. Students will develop their skills in reading, writing and conversation and undertake translation from and into Arabic at an advanced introductory level.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:

1. read simple hand written or printed material containing frequently used structural forms, patterns and vocabulary;
2. read and understand known language elements that have been recombined in new ways to achieve different meanings at similar levels of grammatical complexity;
3. demonstrate sufficient control of Modern Standard Arabic vocabulary and syntactic patterns to meet social demands and write passages related to social and cultural activities, while expressing main tenses with accuracy;
4. use a dictionary or online resources to assist own oral, aural, reading and written communication strategies and engage in independent reading and writing;
5. articulate developed courtesy requirements and maintain simple face-to-face conversations on familiar topics; and
6. respond to and formulate questions in order to engage in a conversation about simple personal and social matters, or to present a chosen topic to an audience.