BEGINNING ARABIC I

This is a beginner course in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). It will introduce you to the speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills in the standard means of communication in the Arab world. The course is proficiency-based, implying that all activities are aimed at placing you, the learner, in the context of the native-speaking environment from the very beginning. Evaluation is done by the more traditional testing methods (vocabulary tests, dictations, grammar and translation exercises). We anticipate that by the end of this course (ARAB 042) students will range in proficiency from Novice High to Intermedaite Low on the ACTFL scale; in other words (using the terminology of the government's Foreign Service Institute), from 'incipient survival' to 'full' survival' in the native-speaking environment.