Arabic 250: Intensive Intermediate Arabic
Department of Modern Languages & Literatures
Fall/Winter 2004/2005

 
 
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The University of Western Ontario
London Ontario

Department of Modern Languages & Literatures, Faculty of Arts
Arabic 250 – Intensive Intermediate Arabic
Course Outline – Fall/Winter, 2004/2005

Course Description:

This course is designed to build upon skills in reading and writing developed in earlier courses. Students will gain increased vocabulary and a greater understanding of more complex grammatical structures. They will be able to approach prose, fiction, and non-fiction written in the language. Students will also increase their proficiency in Arabic script and sound system, widen their working vocabulary, learn key grammatical points, and practice conversation and dictation.

This course is the continuation of Arabic 030 (formerly known as Arabic 002), Intensive Beginners Arabic. Because the material covered in this course hinges heavily on the previous course, students are expected to review and be familiar with the previous lessons they took in Arabic 030. After each new lesson, students are advised to thoroughly go over the drills taken; not reviewing the lesson may hinder students' progress and understanding of subsequent lectures. Students are also encouraged to read in advance the lesson that is to be taken in the next class.

Antirequisites: The former Arabic 020 and ICS 028
Prerequisites: Arabic 030 or Grade 12U Arabic or the former OAC Arabic, Arabic 002, or permission of the Department.

Instructor:

Name: Dr. Yahya Kharrat
Office: UC 353                        Phone: 661-2111 x87467
Office hours: 4:00 – 5:30 pm Mondays and Wednesdays or by appointment
Email address: ykharrat@uwo.ca

Text and Materials:

Peter Abboud, et al., Elementary Modern Standard Arabic
Supplementary materials and exercises provided by the instructor
Language Labs

Class Schedule (Section 001):

  • Monday: 2-4 pm – UC207
  • Wednesday: 2-4 pm – UC207

Student Evaluation:

The following is the distribution of marks:

Quizzes

15%

Assignments

10%

Dictation

5%

Research papers & presentations

15%

Participation & attendance

5%

End of term exam

20%

Final exam

30%

Students are expected to participate in classroom discussions. The instructor must be notified in advance if a student will be unable to attend a class for any reason.

Late assignments will be docked 5% each week day. If there is a compelling reason why you are unable to finish an assignment by the deadline, please speak to the instructor before the assignment is due.

Research papers:

There will be two research papers, one in each term. The aim of the research papers is twofold: Building knowledge of the Arab world and its culture, and at the same time enhancing your appreciation of Arabic literature and strengthening your language skills. Students are given the option of writing their research paper individually or in groups. The maximum number of students for a group is 4. You may use the internet to search for sites relating to culture, education, literature, and other Arabic resources that may improve your learning of Arabic and recognize its heritage. Many search engines, such as Google, accept Arabic search keywords. There will be presentations starting in November.

Research paper topics:

Paper 1: Make a geographical survey of the countries of the Arab world. Select one country and elaborate on its history, borders, population, culture, traditions, etc.

Paper 2: Choose one of the Arab figures in the field of literature. Write a biography of the person you have chosen. Select a passage from the various genres s/he excels at and write a critique about it.

More details about each one will be announced and discussed in class.

Lecture Topics (tentative)

Week of ...

Topic

Notes

Sept 13

Introduction
Lesson 18:

  • Reading: The River Nile
  • Discussion questions
  

Sept 15
  • The elative: comparative and superlative
  • Cognate accusative
  

Sept 20
  • Form III verbs and verbal nouns
  • Verb-preposition idioms
  

Sept 22
  • Use of the dictionary idioms
  • Quiz #1

Asn #1 due

Sept 27

Lesson 19:

  • Reading: The Bedouins
  • Discussion questions
  

Sept 29
  • Form IV verbs and verbal nouns
  • Particles
  

Oct 4
  • Human collective nouns
  • Particle ‘and, and then’
  

Oct 6
  • Discussion of research paper #1
  • Quiz #2

Asn #2 due
Oct 11

Thanksgiving holiday – no class

  

Oct 13

Lesson 20:

  • Reading: A Foreign Reporter in Tunis
  • Discussion questions
  

Oct 18
  • Form V verbs and verbal nouns
  • Form VI verbs and verbal nouns
  • Future with imperfect
  

Oct 20
  • The subjunctive mood
  • Cardinal and Ordinal numbers: 20 to 99
  • Quiz #3

Asn #3 due

Oct 25

Lesson 21:

  • Reading: Elections in the USA
  • Discussion questions
  

Oct 27
  • Form VII verbs and verbal nouns
  • Form VIII verbs and verbal nouns
  

Nov 1
  • The dual of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns
  • The dual of verbs
  • The noun: someone
  

Nov 3
  • Numerals with nouns
  • Quiz #4

Asn #4 due

Nov 8

Lesson 22:

  • Reading: An opinion of the status of women
  • Discussion questions
  

Nov 10
  • Group 1 presentation
  • Nominalizers
  • The sisters of verbs ‘to be’
  

Nov 15
  • Group 2 presentation
  • The noun: ‘other than’
  • Verbs with two accusatives: Verbs of giving
  

Nov 17
  • Group 3 presentation
  • Use of tenses in English & Arabic
  • Quiz #5

Asn #5 due

Nov 22

Lesson 23:

  • Reading: An American Student’s Notes
  • Discussion questions
  

Nov 24
  • Group 4 presentation
  • Relative clauses
  • Gender of names and titles
  

Nov 29
  • Group 5 presentation
  • The nominalizer
  • Adverbial use of the accusative
  

Dec 1
  • Group 6 presentation
  • Review

Asn #6 due

Dec 6
  • Group 7 presentation
  • Review
  

Dec 8
  • Review
  

Dec 10-21

Mid-year exams

  

Jan 3

Lesson 24:

  • Reading: The Suez Canal
  • Discussion questions
  

Jan 5
  • The relative pronoun and particle
  • Form IX verbs and verbal nouns
  

Jan 10
  • Form X verbs and verbal nouns
  • Summary: Form I to X verbs and verbal nouns
  

Jan 12
  • How to read years in dates
  • Quiz #6

Asn #7 due

Jan 17

Lesson 25:

  • Reading: Words of Wisdom
  • Discussion questions
  

Jan 19
  • The imperative mood: positive commands
  • The jussive mood: negative commands
  

Jan 24
  • The jussive mood: Indirect commands
  • Discussion of research paper #2
  

Jan 26
  • Supplementary material
  • Quiz #7

Asn #8 due

Jan 31

Lesson 26:

  • Reading: Susan and Ali
  • Discussion questions
  

Feb 2
  • Independent pronouns used for contrast and emphasis
  • Verbs of beginning
  

Feb 7
  • The tenses: past imperfect
  • Supplementary material continued
  

Feb 9
  • Group 1, 2 presentations
  • Quiz #8

Asn #9 due

Feb 14

Lesson 27:

  • Reading: A Letter
  • Discussion questions
  

Feb 16
  • Active participles: Form I
  • Sisters of ‘perhaps’
  

Feb 21-25

Conference week – no class

  

Feb 28
  • The noun ‘self; same’
  • Case forms of ‘father’ and ‘brother’
  

March 2
  • Group 3, 4 presentations
  • Quiz #9

Asn #10 due

March 7

Lesson 28:

  • Reading: The visit of the American Secretary of State to Egypt
  • Discussion questions
  

March 9
  • Active participles: derived forms
  • The Hal construction
  

March 14
  • The intensifying particle
  • The noun ‘all’
  • The ‘royal we’ and the use of the plural for respect
  

March 16
  • Group 5, 6, 7 presentations
  • Quiz #10

Asn #11 due

March 21

Lesson 29:

  • Reading: Al-Jahiz
  • Discussion questions
  

March 23
  • Quadriliteral verbs
  • Passive voice: perfect tense
  

March 28
  • Adjective Idafas
  • The noun and the preposition
  • Verbs of arriving with accusative object
  

March 30
  • Idafas with both members modified

Lesson 30:

  • Reading: Classical and Colloquial Arabic
  • Discussion questions

Asn #12 due

April 4
  • Topic and comment
  • Passive Voice: Imperfect tense
  • Passive participles
  

April 6
  • The indefinite relative pronouns
  • Review
  

Course Website

The Arabic 250 website is at http://instruct.uwo.ca/mod-lang/ar250/ Assignments, quizzes and exam dates, class information, etc. will be posted on this website. You are responsible for reading this information frequently.

Email Contact

You need to send me your email address in order to facilitate communication between us. I will occasionally need to send email messages to the whole class or to students individually. Note that losing an email or not reading it is not an excuse for not knowing about the information that was sent. If you are using Yahoo or Hotmail accounts, make sure that the junk filters don’t filter out those emails.

Ethical Conduct

All assignments are individual assignments. Students may discuss approaches to assignment problems. However, actual work (answering assignment questions, etc.) must be the student's individual effort. Assignments that are judged to be the result of academic dishonesty will be given a mark of zero. You are responsible for reading and respecting the Modern Languages & Literatures Department's policy on Scholastic Offences and Rules of Ethical Conduct.