Modern Arabic (elementary level II) [ LARAB1102 ]

The ARAB 1100 course : Modern Arabic (elementary level I). This course is open exclusively to those who attend the LARAB1100 in the first semester of the same academic year, or who have earlier passed the exam. Grades obtained for LARAB1102 can only be recognized once the exam for LARAB1100 has been passed. When these two exams have been passed, the student qualifies for the elementary level certificate in Arabic of the ILV.

This course is a continued introduction to Literary, or Standard Arabic in its modern variety, which is the language of the media and all official communication in the entire Arab world today. In an aim to address linguistic reality in the Arab world, the course also includes a first introduction to the Arabic dialects, with concrete examples which are presented in comparison with Standard Arabic.
It aims at learning, using and analyzing forms of address and simple messages pertaining to various situations in daily life, mostly Modern Standard Arabic but also, when applicable, in colloquial Arabic.
The course includes pronunciation drills and exercises in reading and writing.
The course covers the following aspects of learning the Arabic language:

• continued training in the classical prononciation and introduction to current prononciation;
• active and passive use of the Arabic script;
• acquisition of  basic vocabulary that is easy to recognize and that can be applied in daily life.

By the end of the course, the student should have acquired:

• sustained basic knowledge of Arabic grammar
• basic knowledge of the characteristics of colloquial Arabic
• enlarged basic vocabulary in Standard Arabic, with a focus on modern daily life
• the skill to find simple Arabic words in an Arabic-French (or Arabic-English) dictionary
• the cognitive stragegies needed to understand simple written texts and oral expressions in Modern Standard Arabic
• the skill to prepare simple written and oral messages pertaining to daily life, and to recognize the structure of such messages.

1. Indicative continuous assessment based on systematic questioning in class.
2. Combined individual exam (oral and written), after the end of the course. The exams for LARAB1100 and LARAB1102 may be taken simultaneously.

The grade obtained for LARAB1102 can only be recognized once the exam for LARAB1100 has been passed.
 

This course includes classroom instruction sustained by the iCampus virtual teaching environment. It requires active involvement, with written excercises to be prepared for each class, as well as both written and oral excercises to be carried out in class.
 

This course is a continued introduction to Literary, or Standard Arabic in its modern variety, which is the language of the meda and all official communication in the entire Arab world today. The course also includes a first introduction to the Arabic dialects.
It emphasizes continued acquisition of immediately applicable basic vocabulary, as well as the main mechanisms of the language, through the study of morphology and syntax.
This entire process provides the first step towards a proficiency level that compares to level A1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

Note: the Arabic language has a range of characteristics that make its acquisition notoriously hard for French-speaking beginners. It has a set of consonants unknown to us, a distinct right-to-left script, and a complex grammar with declensions, with stronger gender marking than in French, and with a system of number distinction that goes beyond our mere distinction between singular and plural. Additionally, Arabic vocabulary shares few elements with French or other languages usually known to students. Thus, it is difficult, at least with respect to the first year, to apply the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages to the Arabic language acquisition.
 

Printed texts, photocopies, documents presented in digital format, sound recordings. The course provides E-learning activities, with compulsory registration on the i-Campus platform.
Textbook: Luc-Willy Deheuvels, Manuel d'arabe moderne, Paris : Langues et mondes/ L'Asiathèque, 2008 (ISBN 978-90-441-2185-8).
 

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