ARA 101 Arabic for Beginners
Arabic language skills are significant for students who wish to study Islam and Muslim civilizations. Through lectures, reflection, and interactive activities, beginner students learn Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), the standardized, literary Arabic used in formal settings. They build their vocabulary and develop and apply their Arabic communication skills orally and in writing. Students learn everything from the alphabet and numbers to grammatical structures and verb patterns, from the Arabic script to similar-sounding phonemes, from describing their feelings and objects to greeting people, from methods for developing listening and speaking skills to common, useful words, phrases, and expressions. Tailored to meet the needs of beginners, the course seamlessly integrates practical language skills with Islamic studies, ensuring students acquire both linguistic competence and cultural insight.
Learning Outcomes
Recognize and use the Arabic alphabet and numbers, and identify all Arabic sounds.
Memorize, define, and use simple words, phrases, and expressions to communicate about everyday situations.
Formulate and respond to simple questions, construct simple affirmative and negative sentences, and assemble words and word combinations into grammatically correct sentences.
Classify words into parts of speech (e.g., noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, preposition, etc.)
Express basic information, ideas, concepts, and emotions in simple clauses and complete sentences (e.g., inquiring about others’ health, asking about their interests, etc.).
Comprehend simple written and audio/video texts on familiar topics.
Demonstrate an awareness of some customs and traditions of Arabic-speaking countries and use basic words and expressions to describe them.
Plan and conduct research with their peers to identify and compare various cultures of the Arab World and North America using the vocabulary they acquire in written and oral forms.
Explain and use proper Arabic sentence structures and verb patterns, and interpret sentences with semantic relationships.
Identify some major differences between formal and spoken/standard Arabic.
Gain a comprehensive understanding of the basic principles and values of Islam.
Appreciate the historical context and contributions of Islamic civilization.