Mr Nadim Ben Mohamed Mahjoub

This is a non-credit bearing course available to all LSE students, staff, alumni and external clients.

• No previous knowledge of Arabic.
• This course is suitable for students wanting to learn Levantine Colloquial Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. Admission into the course upon tutor’s approval during the information sessions.
• Students should demonstrate commitment to regular attendance, completion of homework, completion of the dossier and all assessments.
• Students should dedicate two hours per week for coursework in addition to classes.
  
   

Course aims

• To develop the basis of Levantine Colloquial Arabic at survival level.
• To raise awareness about the two Arabic varieties (formal and colloquial).
• To learn the Arabic writing system.
• To introduce students to Modern Standard Arabic.
• To establish the skills, language and attitudes required to promote and facilitate further study of Arabic.
• To bring the students to level A1- of Common European Framework.

Communicative content

•  Greetings

•  Personal information

•  Your immediate family

•  Your studies and jobs

•  Where you live

•  Your city and country

•  Present and past actions/events

•  Describing people, places and objects

•  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."

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.

Weekly exercises featuring interactive work and oral practise; grammar exercises; reading and listening comprehension.

Study Pack to be provided.

Other useful materials

• Syrian Colloquial Arabic, a Functional Course (third edition) by Mary-Jane Liddicoat, Richard Lennane and Dr Iman Abdul Rahim
• 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
• 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
• Arabic as one language, Mahmoud Al-Batal (ed.), Georgetown Univeristy Press, 2018
• The Integrated Approach to Arabic instruction, Munther Younes, Routledge, 2015

Oral examination (30%) in the LT.
Continuous assessment (70%) in the MT and LT.

Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.