The curriculum of the Arabic program provides two programs:
- Full year (Fall and Spring)
- Summer
While the summer program is an intensive one with 12 hours per week of class instruction , the full year program is 6 hours per week of class instruction. For information about the summer program, please click here. Basically the Arabic program provides four basic courses and two levels of proficiency in Arabic- from beginning to high intermediate level. In all courses, students have a variety of classroom activities (e.g. games, conversational tasks, presentations, role playing, debate discussion) and homework assignments (reading material to get specific information, writing assignments such as answering questions or filling a form, listening to the news or interviewing someone) to complete outside of class. The variety of exercises is intended for all the classes to develop students’ proficiency level with (including vocabulary and grammar) all four-language skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing). Most students study 6 hours a week. Language classes last for 13 weeks. Courses offered at the Program
Elementary Level Courses: 901-710 and 901-711. The Arabic program provides two classes at this level. Students taking those classes are expected to reach the intermediate level. This beginning level is designed to meet the students’ needs to be able to communicate in the basic daily life situations. The focus is on the four basic language skills of modern standard Arabic: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Some aspects of the Arab culture will be introduced. After having an introduction in pronouncing and writing the Arabic letters, the students will be able read short authentic reading texts from Arabic newspapers and to listen to materials from the daily life contexts. At this level, the students will have established a basic common vocabulary and grammatical patterns that can be relatively used in their speaking, listening, reading, and writing. They will also be able to handle a number of task-oriented and social situations such as listing, enumerating and eliciting information, describing a place (an apartment or a room) or filling an arrival card at the airport. By the end of the first year, students are expected to be at the intermediate level. The Intermediate Level Courses 901-720 and 901-721 are designed to enable students to move from intermediate-low level to intermediate-high. The courses focus on the four basic language skills of modern standard Arabic: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Students are expected to read and to discuss articles from both Arabic daily newspapers and other materials related to the religions, politics, culture and economics of the Middle East. In addition, students are required to listen to the news media on a regular basis, to discuss current political issues, argue, debate extensively and give oral presentations in Arabic. Since many reading and writing assignments are required in this class, students will be exposed to a lot of vocabulary that requires developing their skill of guessing the meaning from contexts and looking up words. It is expected that the students will be handling language tasks such as paraphrasing and summarizing texts and expressing their point of views in writing and speaking, describing and narrating events. By the end of the second year, students usually reach either Intermediate-High or the threshold of the Advanced level on the ACTFL scale in listening, speaking and reading, and Intermediate-Mid in writing. The Advanced Level Courses 901-722 and 901-723 are designed to move students from a stage where they learn language with all the basic grammatical rules to using it in wider cultural contexts. Students attempt to feel and emulate the educated native Arabic speaker. At this stage, students will be introduced to the dialects spoken in the Arab world. Reading and listening materials are extensive and vary depending on the themes that interest the students. Students prepare newspaper and journal articles and, in order to improve oral/aural skills, they also study news bulletins, personal interviews, panel discussions and cultural programs recorded on audio and video cassettes and on CD. As time permits, students are exposed to different forms of Arabic reflecting different styles. In addition, students extend their vocabulary through watching extracts from/or entire Arabic movies. By the end of the third year, it is expected that the students to be able to converse in a clearly participatory fashion, to carry out a wide variety of communicative tasks that requires diverse discourse strategies. Students usually reach either Advanced or Advanced-Plus levels in listening, speaking, and reading, and Intermediate-High in writing. Fulfilling Language Requirements
During the week before the classes begin, incoming students take a language placement test to help determine which level is most appropriate for them. This includes students who have taken Arabic language classes in another institute during the intersession period and would like to take the placement exam to be evaluated for the next level if they have made sufficient progress. At the end of the program, in order for proficiency students to fulfill the Arabic language requirements, they will need to achieve the following levels for the four basic language skills:
Language Skill Level to be achieved: - Speaking: Intermediate Mid
- Listening: Intermediate Mid
- Reading: Intermediate Mid
- Writing: Not Applicable
After fulfilling the language requirements, students will receive an achievement certificate. (For detailed descriptions of the above-mentioned language levels, please see the ACTFL web page: www.actfl.org ) Many SAIS students have attained Advanced-Plus and Superior levels of proficiency, and all students are encouraged to strive for such high levels of professional competency so that they will be able to effectively perform the tasks of their future career in international affairs. Generally speaking, students who do not study Arabic before enrolling at SAIS should plan to take two academic year courses and one intensive summer course in order to achieve the required level. Ph.D. candidates must achieve advanced level skills in reading, listening and speaking.
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