Arabic-L:PEDA:SOAS program in Communicative Arabic

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Fri 11 Oct 2002
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1) Subject:SOAS program in Communicative Arabic

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1)
Date:  11 Oct  2002
From: Sherin Abdel-Halim <sa15 at soas.ac.uk>
Subject:SOAS program in Communicative Arabic


An Opportunity to Join a Diploma/Certificate Programme

The Language Centre at the School of Oriental and African Studies, is  
currently running a diploma/certificate course in communicative Arabic.  
 The Diploma is recognized by the University of London.

The school is still accepting applications for joining the course.  
Students will be placed according to their level, and may join the  
programme at any time based on assessment.

If interested or for further information contact:

E-mail:languages at soas.ac.uk

Telephone: 00-44-20-7898-4858/88

Fax: 00-44-20 7898 4889

Website: http://www.soas.ac.uk/languagecentre/enquiry.html

Diploma / Certificate in Communicative Arabic 2002/2003

The Diploma in Communicative Arabic is designed to prepare students  
with no previous knowledge of Arabic to live and work in an  
Arabic-speaking environment. In addition to learning standard Arabic,  
both written and spoken, students will be introduced to Arabic  
dialects, mainly Egyptian and Levantine. Adopting the communicative  
approach in teaching Arabic, the course will develop the skills of  
listening, speaking, reading and writing in a balanced way. The Diploma  
is recognized by the University of London.

By the end of the course, students will be able to communicate  
effectively in Arabic in a wide range of situations, and be able to  
read and write Arabic with ease. They should have a good command of the  
language used in everyday and survival situations, social  
conversations, current affairs, and job related situations. Adopting  
the communicative approach in teaching Arabic, the course will develop  
the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing in a balanced  
way.

It extends over three terms / one academic year, with a total of six  
hundred instruction hours. Students who complete the first two terms (a  
total of 360 instruction hours) successfully may be awarded a  
“Certificate in Communicative Arabic.”

The course assumes no background knowledge of the language. However,  
students may join the course at any point once their level is assessed.

The course consists of 15 hours of class-based group teaching each  
week, and students are expected to study as many hours on their own.  
Classes are held in the morning, Monday to Friday, 9:30 to 12:45. In  
addition to the classroom contact hours, some individual sessions will  
be available by appointment with some designated teachers.

The SOAS Language Centre has a staff of over twenty fully-trained,  
experienced, native-speaker teachers of Arabic. The course is run under  
the academic supervision of the Department of the Languages and  
Cultures of Near and Middle East.

Assessment:Students are assessed through a combination of termly  
written and oral examinations and continuous assessment. Students have  
to pass each term to be able to move to the next.

The term grade will consist of Continuous Assessment (30%) and  
end-of-term examination (70%).

Continuous assessment will be based on marked homeworks and tests, both  
written and oral. The end-of-term, and the end-of-course, exams will  
also comprise oral and written parts.Students need 50% to pass.

Teaching Materials:

In addition to audio-visual materials and a variety of original  
materials supplied by the teachers, the course will rely on a number of  
text books such as:

1.      Al-Kitaab fii Tacallum al-cArabiyya: A Textbook for  
Arabic.Brustad, K. et al., Georgetown University Press, 1997

2.     Al-Kitaab Al-Asaasi.     Badawi, A.M. et al, Tunisia, 1992

3.     Anistuna -- Egyptian Colloquial. Nahid Awni, 1999.

4.     A selection of materials from:

1.     Breakthrough Arabic, Auty et al. (Levantine Arabic)

2.     Colloquial Arabic of the Gulf and Saudi Arabia, Clive Holes.

Text books will be supplied by the Language Centre.

By the end of the Diploma students will be able to:

1.	Communicate effectively within a wide variety of situations,  
selecting and adapting appropriate language strategies and  
registers. They will be able to seek, convey and respond to  
information, ideas and opinions in everyday social interactions as well  
as in discussions and debates;

2.	Search for and obtain information on a broad range of topics from a  
wide variety of written and spoken sources, including sources such as  
newspapers, magazines, journals, TV, video, films;

3.	Skim and scan a variety of non-technical texts, at a high level of  
complexity, with reasonable speed to successfully extract main ideas or  
specific information as required;

4.	Comfortably read and write the Arabic script with great accuracy and  
regardless of the script being used (i.e. printed/handwritten material);

5.	Write summaries, reports, social and work-related correspondence.  
They will be able to convey ideas and opinions and present and debate  
arguments in written form.

A full learning experience:

Students will have the opportunity to attend relevant seminars and  
lectures available in the School such as those organised by the Centre  
of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, Centre Of Islamic Studies, Centre  
for Islamic and Middle Eastern Law and the Department of the Languages  
and Cultures of Near and Middle East.

The Resources Room is also open to Language Centre students free of  
charge. It contains audio listening and recording facilities, reception  
of 19 satellite TV and radio stations (including BBC World Service  
radio programmes), computers with Internet access, and an increasing  
range of computer-based language learning software. Students are  
encouraged to use the facilities in their own time in order to build  
upon skills learnt in the classroom.

Students will be able to use the SOAS library and have access to its  
unique and extensive collection of books, manuscripts, archives,  
microfilms and maps of Asia and Africa.

Dates of terms:

Term 1:7 October 2002 – 19 December 2002 (11 weeks)

Term 2:6 January 2003 – 11 April 2003 (14 weeks)

Term 3:28 April 2003 – 8 August 2003 (15 weeks)

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End of Arabic-L:  11 Oct  2002