Arabic HomeThis course is a continuation of ARAB 310. This course covers topics and situations relating to contemporary Arabic media, literature and culture. Focus is on acquisition of more complex grammatical structures, on expanding vocabulary and discourse skills, and on developing competence in a wide range of communicative situations.
This course focuses on authentic Arabic media, including print media and video materials. Activities include reading/listening for comprehension and discussion of topics related to current events, politics, economics, society and culture.
This course aims at training students in the skills of Reading Comprehension and Speaking at the Advanced to Superior Levels on the ACTFL scale and helping them acquire a broad understanding of Arab culture through texts. Readings for the course consist exclusively of authentic materials on various contemporary topics in the humanities and the social sciences, and various genres including commentaries, essays, short stories, biographies, journal and magazine articles, etc., and reflective narrative, expository, descriptive and argumentative styles. The students are expected to present and to discuss orally the materials read, using complex sentences in a paragraph length discourse, to write outlines, paraphrases, summaries and compositions based on the materials read, and to demonstrate comprehension of texts of increasing levels of complexity and make inferences from them. At the end of the course, students will review orally in class and present a written report on a book in their field of interest selected in consultation with the instructor.
Prerequisite: ARAB 310 or permission of the instructor.
