Global Arc

In this course, students will improve their skills in reading and listening to Arabic news media, including newspapers, magazines, websites, and radio and satellite TV broadcasts (including BBC and al-Jazeera, among others). Attention will also be given to informal discussion of these subjects. Study will be arranged by subject matter, such as the Arab-Israeli conflict; the US occupation of Iraq; political Islam; demoratization of the Arab world; economic issues; and popular culture, to name a few. We will also take a brief look at political cartoons.

This course is a continuation of ARA 303, Media Arabic, in which students will improve their skills in reading and listening to Arabic news media, including newspapers, magazines, websites, and radio and satellite TV broadcasts (including the BBC and al-Jazeera, among others). Attention will also be given to informal discussion of these subjects. Study will be arranged by subject matter, including: talks and conferences; demonstrations and protests; conflicts and terrorism; elections; rule of law; and business.

An introduction to spoken Levantine dialect. Materials in the course are designed to promote functional usage of the language, stressing the vocabulary and grammar of conversation as used in daily life in the Levant, particularly Palestine, Jordan, and Lebanon.

This course continues the introduction to spoken Levantine dialect that was begun during the fall semester. Materials in the course are designed to promote functional usage of the language, stressing the vocabulary and grammar of conversation as used in daily life in the Levant, particularly Palestine, Jordan, and Lebanon.

An introduction to the spoken dialects of Egypt, particularly of Cairo. Students in this course are assumed to have a functional, working knowledge of classical Arabic, and the course will focus on developing the ability to use conversational language in common, everyday situations.

This course trains students in the practice of translating of Arabic texts from a wide variety of genres into English. Attention will be given to both theoretical and practical problems of translation for research and professional ends.

This course will use the genre of the Arabic short story to help students expand their reading and, to a lesser extent, their speaking skills in Modern Standard Arabic. In addition, students will learn about the development of the Arabic short story through reading representative examples of the genre from a variety of periods and authors. The course will focus on a new short story each week, with one class meeting devoted to close reading of a portion of the week's story and the second focusing on a more general discussion - part in English and part in Arabic - of the story under consideration.

A continuation of ARA 307. The course focuses on the informal Arabic dialect of Cairo. Students in this course are assumed to have a basic working knowledge of Egyptian Colloquial Arabic, having completed ARA 307. In this second term, students are trained to use Egyptian colloquial at higher registers, including discussions and debates on politics, religion, culture, history, education, and famous Egyptian and Arab personalities. In addition to the textbook, excerpts from Egyptian television, radio, film, music, and theater will be used as means to enhance students' understanding of Egyptian and Arab culture.

The goal of this course is to familiarize students with the ways that Arabs express themselves when speaking in a formal setting, and to help students gain greater confidence in expressing themselves in Formal Spoken Arabic, a simplified form of Modern Standard Arabic. Attention will also be given to developing native-like pronunciation and grammatical accuracy, as well as to enriching one's socio-cultural understanding of North Africa and the Middle East through discussions of topics ranging from the personal (food, family) to the socio-economic (women's roles, Arab cultural identity, education and illiteracy in the Arab world).

This course will develop students' skills in Moroccan Colloquial Arabic (darija), with an eye to future study in Morocco. In addition to the textbook, students will encounter the language through a variety of contemporary media forms such novellas and telenovelas, ads, music videos, comics and blogs. Topics covered in the course will range from perspectives on personal matters to views on socio-cultural issues. While the main objective will be communicative, emphasis will also be placed on pronunciation and advanced grammatical structures that have been preserved in the Moroccan dialect.