Admission requirements
Modern Standard Arabic 2.
This course is taught parallel with MSA 3 & 4 and Teksten Arabisch 1: verhalen. All courses must be taken simultaneously.
Description
This course familiarizes students with the vocabulary, structure, and usage of the variety of Arabic used in the written and spoken news. It also helps improving reading, listening, and presentation skills at the lower intermediate level.
Course objectives
By the end of the course, students will be able to read short texts from current-affair pages in Arabic written media and listen to current affair news-related broadcast media, identify the main ideas and key details. They will show familiarity with vocabulary and grammar structures related to demonstrations, elections, violence and terrorism, etc. and they will be able to give a short presentation summarizing media reports on a given event or series of related events.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Seminar
Attendance and active participation are obligatory for these seminars. Students are required to prepare for and attend all sessions. The convener needs to be informed without delay of any classes missed for a good reason (i.e. due to unforeseen circumstances such as illness, family issues, problems with residence permits, the Dutch railways in winter, etc.). In these cases it is up to the discretion of the convener of the course whether or not the missed class will have to be made up with an extra assignment. The maximum of such absences during a semester is two. Being absent without notification and/or more than two times can result in exclusion from the term end exams and a failing grade for the course.
Assessment method
The course grade is calculated as the weighted average of the following components:
| Partial Assessment | Weighing |
|---|---|
| Midterm | 30% |
| Homework assignments | 10% |
| Classroom participation | 10% |
| Quizzes | 10% |
| Presentation | 10% |
| Final exam | 30% |
Resit
If the final grade is below 5.5 there is the possibility to resit for 70% (which will replace the grades for the quizzes, midterm, and final exams). The grades for participation, homework assignments and presentation cannot be retaken and will count towards the final grade.
Exam review
If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will be organized.
Reading list
Alaa Elgibali, Nevenka Korica, Media Arabic, A Coursebook for Reading Arabic News, (The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo-N.Y., 2014).
Hans Wehr, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (Arabic-English). Edited by J. Milton Cowan. Fourth Edition, considerably enlarged and amended by the author. (Ithaca, N.Y., 1994).
Additional material as deemed appropriate by instructor.
Registration
Via Usis
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office Vrieshof
Remarks
This course will be given in English and Arabic.