Eastern colloquial Arabic [ LARAB1302 ]

The LARAB1102 course: Modern Arabic (elementary level), or LGLOR1661/1662, or diploma/ training recognized as equivalent.
The learning outcomes of the present course help prepare the student for the advanced course in Modern Arabic (LARAB2500), as well as for the courses in Middle Arabic and Mixed Varieties of Arabic (LGLOR2721- LGLOR2722).

This is an intermediate course in colloquial Arabic in its Eastern varieties, as is used in Cairo, Beirut, Damascus, etc. but also, as prestige dialects, elsewhere in Egypt and the Levant, and widely understood in the entire Arab world today.
It aims at understanding and grammatical analysis of texts and oral expressions in Eastern colloquial Arabic, on a variety of topics (cultural, literary, political, religious, pertaining to daily life). The basic training focuses on Cairene Arabic, and the other varieties will be dealt with in a comparative framework.

The course covers the following aspects of learning the Arabic language:

• pronunciation drills aiming at authenticity;
• passive knowledge of unvocalized Arabic script as generally used for writing colloquial Arabic;
• passive knowledge of transcription systems used in scholarly literature for writing colloquial Arabic;
• acquisition of basic vocabulary that is characteristic of modern daily life in its multiple aspects.

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

• sustained basic knowledge of the grammar of Eastern (Egyptian, Syrian/Lebanese) colloquial Arabic
• enlarged basic vocabulary in Eastern colloquial Arabic, with a focus on modern daily life
• the skill to find relatively complex Arabic words in a specialised Arabic-French (or Arabic-English) dictionary
• the skill to prepare and to use relatively complex oral messages pertaining to daily life, and to recognize the structure of such messages.
• the cognitive strategies needed to independently understand complex texts and expressions in Egyptian colloquial Arabic

1. Continuous assessment of quality of participation in class.
2. Three combined exams (oral and written), divided over the academic year (January examination session, last week before Easter, June examination session).

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

This is an intermediate course in colloquial Arabic in its Eastern varieties, as is used in Cairo, Beirut, Damascus, etc. but also, as prestige dialects, elsewhere in Egypt and the Levant, and widely understood in the entire Arab world today.
It emphasizes acquisition of immediately applicable substantial basic vocabulary, as well as the main mechanisms of the language, through the study of morphology and syntax.
This entire process should result in a proficiency level that compares to levels A2 (for the active aspects) and B1 (for passive aspects) 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 iCampus platform.

Textbooks:
Manfred Woidich & Rabha Heinen-Nasr, Kullu Tamam ! An Introduction to Egyptian Colloquial Arabic, Cairo : The American University in Cairo Press, 2004 (ISBN 978-977-424-842-9).

While French is the language of instruction, Arabic will be used to a certain extent, particularly for conversation drills.