Mr Nadim Ben Mohamed Mahjoub

This is a non-credit-bearing course available to all LSE students, staff and alumni.

Assumed prior knowledge:

Students should demonstrate command (at both written and oral level) of the "Communicative Content" and "Structural Content" of LN702: Arabic Level 1 (Fast Track). Please see the course description of LN702: Arabic Level 1 (Fast Track) online.

Additional requisites:

• For admission into the course, students must complete a level test and obtain the tutor's approval.
• Students should demonstrate commitment to regular attendance and to the completion of homework, and assessments.
• Students should expect to dedicate at least two hours per week to independent study (homework, vocabulary review, reading, and listening practice) in addition to classroom contact hours. 

Course Aims

• To develop the use of Arabic
• To offer an insight into one major dialect of the Arabic language
• To establish the skills, language, and attitudes required to promote and facilitate further study of Arabic
• To bring students to Level A2- of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR)

Communicative Content

• Talking about present events and experiences
• Talking about past events and experiences
• Describing people, places, and objects
• Talking about daily habits and routine
• Making comparisons
• Using both the past and the present
• Talking about future plans (basic)
• Expressing preferences
• Expressing likes and dislikes
• Writing a biography

Structural Content

• Revision of the present tense
• Revision of nisba (nationality)
• Revision of iḍāfa (genitive construction)
• Revision of possessives
• Revision of the past tense
• Negative phrases
• Prepositions with pronoun suffixes
• Comparatives
• Adverbs of frequency
• Introduction to maṣdar (verbal noun)
• Time expressions
• The verb kāna ('to be')
• The dual and plurals (sound and broken)
• Future tense
• Numbers
• Number–noun agreement (1–10)
• Adjective–noun agreement (human/non-human)
• Demonstratives (revision and extension)
• Quantities
• Introduction to cases and declension (nominative, genitive, accusative)

16 hours of classes in the Autumn Term.
22 hours of classes in the Winter Term.
2 hours of classes in the Spring Term.

This is a 40 hour-course. Please refer to the LSE timetable for course teaching arrangements.

16 hours of classes in the AT. 22 hours of classes in the WT. 2 hours of group tutorial time, as arranged by the teacher during the AT, WT, ST. 

Resources

Students will be provided with a study pack designed and prepared for LSE students by Nadim Ben Mohamed Mahjoub.

Other useful materials

• Al-Batal, M. (Ed.). (2018). Arabic as one language: Integrating dialect in the Arabic language curriculum. Georgetown University Press.
• Brustad, K., Al-Batal, M., & Al-Tonsi, A. (2011). Al-Kitāb fī taʿallum al-ʿArabiyya, Part 1: A textbook for beginning Arabic. Georgetown University Press.
• Wightwick, J., & Gaafar, M. (2005). Mastering Arabic grammar. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Wightwick, J., & Gaafar, M. (2007). Mastering Arabic 1. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Wightwick, J., & Gaafar, M. (2009). Mastering Arabic 2. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Wightwick, J., & Gaafar, M. (2011). Easy Arabic reader. Palgrave Macmillan.

Dictionary

• Doniach, N. S. (Ed.). (1983). The Oxford English-Arabic dictionary of current usage. Oxford University Press.

Oral examination (30%).

Continuous assessment (70%).