Eastern colloquial Arabic

Teacher(s)

den Heijer Johannes;

Language

Arab

Prerequisites

The LARAB1100 course: Modern Arabic Elementary Level I, or diploma/ training recognized as equivalent.
The learning outcomes of the LARAB1302 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).

The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.

Main themes

This is an intermediate course (UE) in colloquial Arabic in its Eastern varieties, as 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 the 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 either Cairene or Syro-Lebanese 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 a basic vocabulary, characteristic of modern daily life in its multiple aspects.

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	By the end of the course, the student should be able: to master the basic grammar of Eastern (Egyptian, Syrian/Lebanese) colloquial Arabic, to use a basic vocabulary in Eastern colloquial Arabic, with a focus on modern daily life, to find relatively complex Arabic words in a specialised Arabic-French (or Arabic-English) dictionary, to prepare and to use relatively complex oral messages pertaining to daily life, and to recognize the structure of such messages. to use the cognitive strategies needed to independently understand complex texts and expressions in Eastern colloquial Arabic.

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

Content

This is an intermediate course in colloquial Arabic in its Eastern varieties, as 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 the 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 dialects have a range of characteristics that make their acquisition notoriously hard for French-speaking beginners. They have a set of consonants unknown to us, a distinct right-to-left script, and a complex grammar. Additionally, Arabic vocabulary shares few elements with French or other languages usually known to students. Thus, it is difficult to apply the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages to the acquisition of Arabic dialects.

Teaching methods

This course includes classroom instruction sustained by the Moodle 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.

Evaluation methods

1. Continuous assessment of quality of participation in class.
2. Oral exam during the June session.

Other information

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

Online resources

http://moodleucl.uclouvain.be/login/index.php

Bibliography

• Textes imprimés, textes en photocopies, documents présentés sous forme numérique, support sonore.
• Inscription obligatoire sur Moodle.
• Manuels de référence :
  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).

Faculty or entity

ILV