How to do Well in This Class



Arabic II

MDES 152

4 Units

MTuWThF 9:00-9:50am

THH107

Instructor: Lina Kholaki

Office location: Taper Hall 449 B

Office hours: 1-2pm Tuesdays-Wednesdays and Thursdays, or by appointment

Telephone: 213-821-2375

E-mail: kholaki@usc.edu

Prerequisite: MDES 122: Arabic I or the equivalent.

Objectives include the following skills in Arabic.

Students will be able to do the following, using the oral and written skills:

• Describing people, activities, objects, and events.

• Expressing and describing time-related concepts (days, months, holidays, etc.).

• Birthdays; personal information; dates, school subjects, and schedules; appointments.

• Describing travel and professions.

• Describing daily routines; transportation; foods and drinks

• Expressing likes and dislikes; making lists of items; fruits and vegetables; money; numbers.

• Describing place of residence; maps; geographical directions and locations.

• Expressing preference (foods, drinks, sports); means of transportation.

Approach

Teacher and student activities are geared toward developing functional abilities to use Arabic accurately and fluently in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This involves intensive classroom interaction and out-of-class assignments. We supplement the communicative approach with grammatical analysis always connected with specific related performed tasks.

 

Course Materials:

• Textbook: Ahlan wa Sahlan: Functional Modern Standard Arabic for Beginners 2nd Edition, by Mahdi Alosh, revised with Allen Clark, ISBN: 978-0-300-12272-5

• Audio and video materials included in discs with books

• Online Interactive Exercise program at

• Sah-la-way-hi Level 1

Graded stories-beginners by Ahmad Khorshid

Optional materials: (Highly recommended)

Arabic-English Dictionary: The Hans-Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic.

Recommended web sites





.

.

.

.



Student Responsibilities

1. Participating in class activities, that means attendance is highly encourage and essential to enhance your learning. Most of the language skills to be developed cannot be acquired without effective participation and interaction with other students and with the instructor. My expectation is that we can build an Arabic-speaking community through teamwork.

2. Doing homework assignments. Refer to blackboard assignments daily and weekly. This out-of-class practice is essential for reinforcement of classroom learning, reading, and writing. Homework is due the day after being assigned. Expect to spend at least 2 hours daily outside the class to review, prepare and practice vocabulary and drills. Homework will be submitted at the beginning of class—simply place it on my desk after you arrive.

3. Taking classroom quizzes, the mid-term, and the written final. A make-up quiz will be given for documented medical emergencies.

4. Taking oral exams during the fifth and tenth week of classes. They will be related to what is covered in class. Oral exams could be individual or through oral presentations. Pronunciation, fluency, breadth of vocabulary, and appropriate, functional usage will be taken into account. The oral midterm is in the form of a conversation between instructor and student. The final oral test is either a skit designed and acted out by one to three students (one group at a time), or a one-on-one oral examination with the instructor. The skit should integrate most of the material covered and reflect the students’ creative and imaginative abilities. The skit will not be read off of cards.

|Syllabus |

|Week 1 |Lesson 1-5 |Review |

|Aug 27th-31 | | |

|Week 2 |Lesson 6 |Using terms of address, express regret or apology |

|Sep 4th-7th | |Negation, conjugation and cardinal numbers 11-999 |

|Week 3 |Lesson 7 |Arabic print media |

|Sep 10th-14th | |Imperative, case of nouns |

|Week 4 |Lesson 8 |Requesting and declining things |

|Sep. 17th-21st | |Expressing likes and dislikes |

| | |Describing daily activities |

|Week 5 |Lesson 9 |Telling time formally and informally |

|Sep. 24th-28th | |Describing daily activities. |

| | |Oral midterm |

|Week 6 |Review, Lesson 10 |Describing people, objects, possessions and activities |

|Oct. 1st-5th | |Learning about Arab speaking world |

| | |Introduction to past tense, and verbal noun. |

| | |1st Written midterm |

|Week 7 |Lesson 10 |Continued |

|Oct.8th-12th | |Sah-la-way-hi reading stories |

|Week 8 |Lesson 11 |Describing activities, present, past and future. |

|Oct.15th-19th | |Expressing sequence. |

| | |Reporting other people’s speech. |

|Week 9 |Lesson 12 |Describing four seasons. |

|Oct.22nd-26th | |Describing weather. |

|Week 10 |Lesson 13 |Describing daily activities. |

|Oct.29th-Nov.2nd | |Introduction to negating imperatives. |

| | |Expressing reasons. |

| | |Weak verbs. |

| | |2nd Written midterm |

|Week 11 |Lesson 14 |Expressing reason. |

|Nov.5th-9th | |Expressing contrast. |

| | |Introduction to preposition folling verb. |

| | |. |

|Week 12 |Lesson 15 |Describing events such as national and religious festivities. |

|Nov.12th-16th | |Providing personal information. |

|Week 13 |Lesson 16 |The secret of the language: Arabic verb forms. |

|Nov.19th | |Describing people, activities, and past events. |

|Week 14 |Lesson 17 |Making appointments and schedules, and describing festivities. |

|Nov.26th-30th | |Learning how to make dual and plural nouns. |

| | |Introduction to passive and active particles. |

|Week 15 |Lesson 18 |Final presentation. |

|Dec.3rd-7th |Review |Oral finals/skits |

 

• Homework: One day late half credit; two days late no credit

• Final exam: Monday December 17th-2012

11:00-1:00pm

Academic Integrity

USC seeks t maintain an optimal learning environment. General principles of academic honesty include the concept of respect for the intellectual property of others, the expectation that individual work will be submitted unless otherwise allowed by an instructor, and the obligations both to protect one’s own academic work from misuse by others as well as to avoid using another’s work as one’s own. All students are expected to understand and abide by these principles. Scampus, the student guidebook, contains the Student Conduct Code in Section 11.00, while the recommended sanctions are located in Appendix A:

Disability policy

Any student requesting accommodations based on disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me as early in the semester as possible. DSP offices are located in STU 301, and are open from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Friday. Their phone number is (213) 740-0776.

|Grading |

|Participation |15 |

|Quizzes |10 |

|Homework |20 |

|Midterms (1 oral, 2 written) |10 each = 30 |

|Oral final or skit |10 |

|Written final |15 |

|Total |100 |

How to Succeed in This Class

This class is a group effort! We can make much more progress as a class than as individuals by creating an Arabic-speaking community of which you will be a fully participating member. The following suggestions will help you get the most out of the course:

1- Prepare for active participation in class. Practice new vocabulary out loud until you can produce it easily, listen/read texts several times until you are ready to answer questions on them, practice new grammar by using them in sentences.

2- Study out loud. The only way to train your brain and your mouth to speak in Arabic is through performance. Reading silently is not enough. Repeat whatever you hear, pronounce whatever you write, and learn to talk to yourself in Arabic.

3- Think in Arabic. While on your way from one class to another, think to yourself in Arabic. Name all of the objects whose name you know in Arabic. Describe their location, size, shape, color, number, adding as much detail as possible.

4- Study in pairs/groups. This is a great way to prepare for class and review—as long as you do the work in Arabic as much as possible, of course! Ask each other questions, brainstorm about assignments, go over materials covered in class together. You are welcome to collaborate on assignments, as long as each student hands in his/her own work.

5- Personalize vocabulary. Make words relevant by thinking of what you can say about yourself with them. Write extra sentences that are meaningful to you so that the vocabulary becomes yours. It is important at this stage to concentrate on what you can say more than what you want to say—which will come in time—and the best way to successfully attain that goal is to build a solid vocabulary base. Language Learning is a process of programming yourself, because the words that you memorize are those very words that you will use to express yourself. By spending five minutes with words that you choose from the given vocabulary lists, you will be able to retain them for the rest of your life—Make this language yours.

6- Language is context. The communicative approach to language learning encourages you, the learner, to use what you know to derive what you do not. Think about how you acquired your native language: you learned new words by guessing their meaning from context, and you learned how to produce sentences by imitating and using patterns. As adult learners, we can take some shortcuts, but guessing skills remain central to language acquisition.

7- Good language learners learn from their own mistakes and those of others. As language learners new to Arabic, mistakes are going to be made, but should not cause you undue stress. When your classmates are speaking, be an active listener by listening both to what they are saying and how they are saying it. Think about how you would correct their sentences.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download