<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">------------------------------------------------------------------------</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Arabic-L: Fri 18 Apr 2008</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <<a href="mailto:dilworth_parkinson@byu.edu">dilworth_parkinson@byu.edu</a>></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">[To post messages to the list, send them to <a href="mailto:arabic-l@byu.edu">arabic-l@byu.edu</a>]</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">[To unsubscribe, send message from same address you subscribed from to</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="mailto:listserv@byu.edu">listserv@byu.edu</a> with first line reading:</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> unsubscribe arabic-l ]</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-------------------------Directory------------------------------------</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">1) Subject:Third Year Book and Experience</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-------------------------Messages-----------------------------------</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">1)</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Date: 18 Apr 2008</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">From:"Muhammad Eissa" <<a href="mailto:eissa@comcast.net" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline; ">eissa@comcast.net</a>></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Subject:Third Year Book and Experience</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; ">Any reply to a request for material or a text(book) that has the word "year"<br>in it is bound to be misleading. Also, we better use a level of students'<br>proficiency and clarify the objectives of teaching the course. That would<br>make answers more specific and relevant. <br><br>Having said that, here is a personal experience to share. Last year I was<br>asked to teach a class of mainly graduate students that was titled "High<br>Intermediate Classical Arabic". Students were supposed to be at an<br>intermediate mid or high in the proficiency scale. Some of them could be<br>rated at the advanced low but they all are trained as learner of what is so<br>called "Modern Standard Arabic". Those were the typical students that you<br>may label as 'third year' level. <br><br>In an attempt to be true to the title of the course (classical) and the<br>expectations of specific objectives to be met, I assigned a book that is<br>identified as an anthology of Arabic texts. The book contained a great and<br>wide selection of texts from Pre-Islamic to modern times in multitude of<br>themes. It was not surprising to discover that students with such training<br>and proficiency level felt at loss in the first meeting of the class. They<br>have not been trained to handle a text and read it independently, let alone<br>be ready to discuss its content in a class conducted totally in Arabic. On<br>the other hand, the anthology was not pedagogically prepared to introduce a<br>reading strategy for comprehension and analysis. It provided a vocabulary<br>list and some questions all placed at the end of the text. Soon I discovered<br>that the students' level of proficiency has to be treated differently and<br>the teaching should continue in a manner that is closer to the previous<br>courses, yet with considerable progression and careful preparation. They<br>need to build a solid ground in reading and comprehension strategies and<br>ought to be challenged with more independent assignments. However, we<br>continued with the same anthology but we started to create more vocabulary<br>lists, drills, sentences and assign more chapters from grammar reference<br>works for the whole year. <br><br>This year I choose to use Al-Kitaab, Part III for the same-level course. The<br>purpose was to train students pedagogically on how to study Arabic rather<br>than what to study. In the process, any vocabulary, content and grammatical<br>features they would acquire will surely come handy, regardless of the nature<br>of the text. Due to the nature and title of this course, I paid more<br>attention and spent more time on reading and analyzing the "classical"<br>selections of readings in "Al-Kitaab, P. III". I supplied short selections<br>from classical works that kept students practice and gain language<br>proficiency compatible with the objectives of the course. <br><br>Now, as we usher the third part of a year long course of six hours a week,<br>we are done with al-Kitaab. Students feel more comfortable speaking,<br>dialoging, and analyzing texts in Arabic in varieties of topics and<br>linguistic complexity. This week we are starting to deal with authentic<br>longer selected texts featuring the content and style of what they initially<br>needed to learn, e. g. "classical". They feel that they are more prepared<br>pedagogically to work on their own with confidence and much less anxiety.<br>They are applying the learning strategies that were acquired through the<br>past two thirds of the course. <br><br>The merit of the story is .. If your students are somehow similar to those<br>described above, with the exception of "classical" adjective, Al-Kitaab, P.<br>III is a good choice. Those who may not be familiar with the approach and<br>philosophy behind Al-Kitaab and other similar textbooks may need to spend<br>sometime configuring the purpose of the lesson organization, drill<br>objectives and the choice of reading selections. Teachers will definitely<br>need to provide supplementary materials and use them as learning and/or<br>assessment tools. Needless to say that any teachers' selected material will<br>be informed by the objectives set for the course with regard to both content<br>and form. <br><br> Sorry for the long message and thanks for reading up to here. <br><br> Salaam <br><br>Muhammad S. Eissa, Ph. D.<br>University of Chicago,<br>Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations,<br>1155 E. 58th. Street,<br>Chicago, IL 60637<br>Ph. (773) 834-0123<br>Fax (773) 702-2587</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">--------------------------------------------------------------------------</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">End of Arabic-L: 18 Apr 2008</div></div></div></div></body></html>