LN825
Arabic Level 1 (Levantine Dialect)
This information is for the 2016/17 session.
Teacher responsible
Dr Nesrin Alrefaai
Availability
This is a non-credit bearing course available to all LSE students, staff, alumni and external clients.
Pre-requisites
• No previous knowledge of Levantine Arabic colloquial required but knowledge of Modern Standard Arabic is suitable.
• All students welcome but they should demonstrate commitment to regular attendance, completion of homework, completion of the dossier and all assessments.
• Students should dedicate at least one/two hours per week for coursework in addition to classes.
• This course is suitable for students wanting to learn Levantine Arabic colloquial.
• Admission into the course upon tutor’s approval during the information sessions or needs analysis meeting.
Course content
Course aims
• To develop the ability to use Arabic Levantine dialect effectively for purposes of practical communication at survival level.
• To deal with a range of predictable simple language tasks using a limited range of language.
• To establish the skills, language and attitudes required to promote and facilitate further study of Arabic.
Communicative content
• Greetings
• Asking for and giving personal information
• Talking about your immediate family
• Talking about studies and jobs
• Say where you live
• Talking about your city and country
• Talking about present and past actions/events
• Describing people, places and objects
• Talking about daily habits/routine
• Making comparisons
• Talking about future plans (basic)
• Expressing likes/dislikes
Structural content
• Pronunciation
• Feminine and masculine words
• Present tense
• The definitive article
• Independent pronouns and pronoun suffixes
• Nouns-adjective phrases
• Numbers
• Plural
• Word order
• Demonstrative
• Possessive pronouns
• Interrogatives (where, when, what, in which,etc.)
• Prepositions: in, between, etc
• Nisba (nationality)
• Idafa (genitive construction)
• Past Tense
• Use of "also, where, in the same, etc."
Teaching
16 hours of classes in the MT. 22 hours of classes in the LT. 2 hours of classes in the ST.
• This is a 40 hour-course.
• Please refer to the LSE timetable for course teaching arrangements.
Formative coursework
Weekly exercises featuring interactive work and oral practise; grammar exercises; reading and listening comprehension.
Indicative reading
Study Pack to be provided at the beginning of the course
Other useful materials for this level
• Arabiyyat al-Naas (Part 1). An introductiory course in Arabic by Munther Younes, Routledge, 2014
• Alif Baa: Introduction to Arabic, Letters and Sounds by Brustad et all. Georgetown Univ. Press, Second or Third Editions
• Al-Kitaab fii Ta‘llum al-‘Arabiyya Al-Kitaab Fii Ta Allum Al- Arabiyya: Pt. 1: A Textbook for Beginning Arabic by Brustad et al, Georgetown Univ.Press, 2011
• Syrian colloquial Arabic, by Mary-Jane Liddicoat, Richard Lenanne and Dr Iman Abdul Rahim in http://www.syrianarabic.com/
• A reference grammar on Syrian Arabic by Marc W. Cowell , Georgetown Univ.Press, 2005
Assessment
Continuous assessment (50%) in the MT and LT.
Other (20%) and oral examination (30%) in the LT.
Key facts
Department: Language Studies
Total students 2015/16: Unavailable
Average class size 2015/16: Unavailable
Personal development skills
- Self-management
- Team working
- Problem solving
- Application of information skills
- Communication
- Specialist skills