Arabic module level one course description.
Course information
Prerequisite for entry
For complete beginners or those who have had only very little contact with the language.
Course duration
20 x 2-hour classes.
Self-Study
80 hours in total.
Module titles
Arabic Level 1, Arabic Levels 1 + 2 (together with Arabic Level 2)
Aims and Objectives
The aim of the course is to enable student to function at a basic every day survival level (basic vocabulary, grammar, morphology, syntax and phonetics). On completion of the course students should be able to communicate in and understand Arabic on a number of practical every day matters. Cultural awareness will be developed. Language learning skills, including autonomous learning and how to approach authentic materials will be developed. Some transferable skills will also be developed.
Course Content
Main topics/themes to be covered
- Greeting, introduction and nationalities
- The Family
- Jobs and places of work
- Describing things and places
- The weather
- Measures of time (Numbers 1-12, time, days of the week, seasons)
- Food and drink
- At the restaurant
- At the grocery shop
- At the bookshop
- Introduction to expressing likes and dislikes
- Basic daily life routine
- Past events
- Future plans
Functions and skills
Orthography
- The letters of the Arabic Alphabet
- Handwriting styles
Pronunciation
- Long and short vowels – word stress
- Emphatic and non-emphatic consonant sounds
- Sun and moon letters/ joining Hamza – sentence stress
Speaking and Writing
Ability to:
- respond to a question or comment
- get the message across
- communicate successfully
- infer meaning
- respond to a text
Activities:
- Introducing oneself and the family, names, nationality, jobs and places of work.
- Describing places and locations
- Talking/writing about the weather
- Talking/writing about past events (Past holiday)
- Talking/writing about daily routine
- Talking/writing about future plans (a trip to the Arab world)
- Roleplay: Ordering a meal at a restaurant in colloquial Levantine.
- Role play: Shopping for food in colloquial Levantine.
- Role play: Shopping for books and stationery in colloquial Levantine.
- Talking/writing/Describing a trip to an Arabic country
- Describing pictures
Listening and Reading
Ability to:
- understand gist
- understand relevant detail
- extract the main ideas and specific information from a text
- form an overall impression of a text and understand details
Activities:
- A letter from a student in an Arab country to his/her parents
- ‘My Summer blog’
- A touristic guide to an Arab country
- A student diary about touristic activities in the Arab world
Writing Formats
- A letter/ an email, a blog, a diary
- A tourist guide
- Description of a trip to the Arab world
- Interview
Linguistic Structures
Grammar
Non-Verbal:
- Personal pronouns
- Possessive pronouns
- Feminine and masculine nouns
- The Nisba adjective
- Noun-adjective phrases
- To have عند| لِ
- Nominal sentences
- Definite article
- Idafa structure
- Demonstrative pronouns هذا ، هذه ، هؤلاء
- Positional language فوق-على-تحت-بجانب-بين-في-على يمين-على يسار
- The dual المثنى
- Regular plural جمع المذكر السالم وجمع المؤنث السالم
- Describing plural nouns of non-human
- Ordinal numbers
Verbal:
(ذهَب إلى، خرَج من، رجَع إلى، فتَح، جلَس، كتَب، قرَأ، سمِع، درَس، أكَل، شرِب، غسَل، لعِب، سبَح، عمِل، سكَن، لبِس)
- Past tense
- Prepositional articles
- Present tense
- The future
- Hamzated verbs أخذ، سأل، بدأ
- Doubled verbs أحبَّ
- Assimilated verbs وصل- وجد
- Hollow verbs كان ، زار، باع
- Defective verbsقضى، مشى، بقي
- Verb Patterns سافر، شاهد، اشترى، أعطى، أراد
Learning Resources
Compulsory material
- Mastering Arabic, Jane Wightwick and Mahmood Jaafar (Macmillan), New edition – ISBN: 978137380449
Additional material
- Alif Baa with DVDs by Kristen Brustad(Author),Mahmoud Al-Batal(Author),Abbas Al-Tonsi(Author),(Georgetown University Press); Third edition (30 Jun. 2010) ISBN:1589016327
- Easy Arabic Grammar by Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar, ISBN 0071462104
- Arabic Verbs & Essentials of Grammar by Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar, ISBN 0071498052
- Your First 100 Words in Arabic by Jane Wightwick ISBN 0844223956 (ISBN13: 9780844223957
A selection of basic authentic material will also be used.
In addition there is a wide range of language learning materials available for self-study in the Self-Access Centre.