Arabic-L:PEDA:AUC Arabic Programs

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Mon 06 Nov 2000
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1) Subject: AUC Arabic Programs

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1)
Date: 06 Nov 2000
From: NIHAL TAMRAZ <nitamraz at aucegypt.edu>
Subject: AUC Arabic Programs


The American University in Cairo
The Arabic Language Institute

The Arabic Language Institute offers intensive Arabic
language courses for students, businessmen, diplomats,
scholars and others needing to gain a broad command of
contemporary Arabic as quickly and as effectively as
possible.  For over sixty years, this program has
attracted students form the United States, Africa,
Asia and Europe, offering intensive courses in both
modern standard and Egyptian colloquial Arabic.  The
Arabic Language Institute administers two programs of
intensive study of Arabic: the Intensive Arabic Language
(ALIN) and the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA).

I. The Intensive Arabic Language (ALIN):
The Intensive Arabic Language (ALIN) is comprised of the
Elementary Level, Intermediate Level, and Advanced Level.

i. The Elementary Level:
The course, for beginners, runs from September to May.
The main emphasis in this level is on modern standard
Arabic, but about 30% of class time is devoted to
Egyptian colloquial Arabic.   Students who successfully
completes the first year of intensive study with the
Arabic Language Institute can expect to possess a
working competence in reading and writing modern
standard Arabic and understanding and speaking
Egyptian colloquial or modern standard Arabic.
ii. The Intermediate Level:
Course are designed for those who have completed the
elementary level or who have studied two or more years
elsewhere and can demonstrate a similar level of competence.
Students who complete this second year should be able to
read and write modern standard Arabic with some fluency,
to pursue study in topics that specially interest them in
Arabic, and o converse freely in Arabic.  They thus get
an opportunity to acquire vocabulary and terminology
related to such special fields of interest as business
and diplomacy.
iii. The Advance Level:
Exceptional students may wish to take a third year of
advanced work in reading and writing and lecture courses
in special topics.  At the end of such a course a student
should be able to compete with Arab students at the
university level.


II. Center for Arabic Studies Abroad (CASA)

The Center for Arabic Studies Abroad (CASA) is an intensive
and advanced Arabic program for American graduate and
undergraduate students who have had at least two years
of instruction in Arabic.  CASA is a consortium of twenty-one
American universities including AUC.  It's objective is
to raise the level and broaden the base of Arabic language
competence in the American academic community.

Each year, this exclusive program offers grants to twenty-five
M.A. and Ph.D. students to participate in this program.
Students are chosen to participate in the program on the basis
of a competitive examination given ever February in the
United States.  They must be American citizens or permanent
residents, and be enrolled in a recognized institution of
learning in the US or Europe.

The CASA program has two components: the summer immersion
program and the full-year intensive Arabic study.
The summer program emphasises the spoken Arabic of
Cairo with some attention to modern standard Arabic.
Students in the full-year program develop a
facility in the use of the four major language skills:
speaking, listening, reading and writing.  In addition
to these programs, CASA provides a summer program for
professors of humanities alternating with a program for
teachers of as a foreign language.

The internationally recognized success of this program is
also manifested in the fact that about 90 percent of
Americans teaching Arabic in the United States have
come through CASA.  CASA is also well known to Arab
immigrants in the US, and Europe as a place where they
can send their children, as Edward Said puts it, "to learn
the language and culture of their heritage."   Said was
proud of his son Wadie, who in 1994, "perfected his quite
extraordinary command of Arabic at CASA in AUC.

Notable CASA graduates include Edward Walker, former
U.S. Ambassador to Egypt, as well as the president and
provost of the American University of Beirut
(AUB), John Waterbury and Peter Heath, respectively.

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End of Arabic-L: 06 Nov 2000