BA History and Arabic

Year of entry: 2024

Course unit details:
Arabic Language 4

Course unit fact file
Unit code MEST51042
Credit rating 20
Unit level Level 2
Teaching period(s) Semester 2
Available as a free choice unit? No

Overview

This is an intermediate level language course, which provides the student with the opportunity to continue and extend the knowledge and skills developed in Semester 1, and to enable them to achieve a competence in Arabic approximately equivalent to B1/B2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).  This course underscores all four communication skills (reading, speaking, listening and writing) and uses audio and video material to take the learner to native speakers in their natural environment, introducing invaluable listening segments and various cultural aspects of the Arab world in order to prepare the students for their year abroad. Students will develop their typing skills in Arabic. 

Information about Arab culture will be introduced implicitly and/or explicitly within the topics covered.

Pre/co-requisites

Unit title Unit code Requirement type Description
Arabic Language 3 MEST51031 Pre-Requisite Compulsory

Available to students taking Arabic Studies, MES with Arabic, and any joint degree with Arabic.

Aims

The aim is to consolidate the language skills acquired by the students in  MEST51031- Arabic Language 3.  The course also offers opportunities for students to increase their knowledge and appreciation of not only the language, in its Modern Standard form, but also the varieties of the Arabic dialects and cultural production in the Arabic-speaking world, in their many facets and diverse manifestations.

Knowledge and understanding

  • Identify more complex grammatical structures and apply them to writing and translation activities.
  • Engage in more complex oral dialogues and simple debates. 
  • Familiarise themselves with the different varieties of the Arabic dialects and the cultural production in the Arabic-speaking world, in their many facets and diverse manifestations.
  • To type short texts in Arabic 

Intellectual skills

  • Engage in problem solving activities, grammatical and textual analysis and translation activities 

Practical skills

  • This course leads to further Arabic language learning to enable the students to graduate with the Arabic language skills demanded by different organisations including governmental, business and NGOs.

Transferable skills and personal qualities

  • develop their ability to improve their independent learning and performance by identifying strengths and weaknesses.
  • develop their personal organization and time management skills.
  • develop their interpersonal and communicative skill through group work inside and outside the class-room and preparing written and oral classroom presentations.
  • begin to gain awareness of and responsiveness to cultural diversity and intercultural communication.

Assessment methods

Assessment Task Formative or Summative Weighting within unit (if Summative)
In-Class Writing Test - Week 9 Summative 10%
Listening exam - Week 11 Summative 10%
Speaking Exam - Week 12 Summative 20%
Written exam - Summer Summative 60%

Students will have formative assessment during the semester to assess their progress and will receive written feedback. This will be spread over the weeks and will test all four language skills.    

Feedback methods

Feedback method

Formative feedback on weekly assignments

In-class comments on language learning and students’ performance in Oral and Written Arabic

Written comments on assignments/homework throughout the year.

Face to face feedback in office hours if required.

Summative feedback

Feedback sheets indicating the quality of the exam performance in the various categories will be available to students.

 

Recommended reading

Course Books: (Subject to change with prior notice) 

Supplementary materials will be provided by the tutors. 

At-Takallum: A Comprehensive Modern Arabic Course. Pre-Intermediate B1 Level by Ahmad Noor Al-Deen Sabir Al-Mashrafi  

 

Recommended reading

Course Book (Subject to change with prior notice):  

Brustad, Kirsten et al. (eds), Al-Kitaab fii ta’llum al-Arabiyya, Part Two (Washington: Georgetown University Press, 2005), this is the 2nd edition with DVD.  

Supplementary materilas will be provided by the tutors. 

Recommended Reading:   

Doniach, N.S. et al., The Concise Oxford English-Arabic Dictionary (Oxford: OUP, 1984); Wehr, Hans, Arabic-English dictionary (Urbana, Illinois: Spoken Languages Services, 1994).  

Abboud, P.F. et al. (eds), Elementary Modern Standard Arabic (EMSA) (Cambridge: CUP, 3rd ed. 1983).  

Scheduled activity hours Lectures 36 Seminars 36

Independent study hours
Independent study 128

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Abdelghani Mimouni Unit coordinator
Orieb Masadeh-Tate Unit coordinator

Additional notes

Extra-curricular activities:  

  • Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) 

All students are encouraged to take part in the PASS scheme to run sessions for 1st year students, in which attendees have a chance to actively discuss difficult course concepts with their peers.  Sessions focus on problem solving in groups in a tutor-free environment where students can raise key questions with each other and, in doing so, understand the material better themselves.  PASS is student-led, informal, friendly and hopefully fun. 

  • Middle Eastern Film Club, taking part in celebrations of Middle Eastern Festivals. 

  • Other activities: Contingent upon securing native speakers of Arabic.  

 

This course and all its materials are available on the online platform Blackboard. There will be resources to extend on classroom work and for self-study. Work will be classified according to skill, e.g. Reading, Listening, Grammar, etc. and there will also be folders for work done week by week.  

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