Arabic Courses at Cornell

Basic Arabic Sequence

NES 111-112 Elementary Arabic

The course provides a thorough grounding in all language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It starts with spoken Arabic and gradually integrates Modern Standard Arabic in the form of listening and reading texts. Emphasis is on learning the language through using it in meaningful contexts. Students who successfully complete the two-semester sequence are able to: 1) understand and actively participate in simple conversations involving basic practical and social situations (e.g., introductions, greetings, school, home and family, work, simple instructions; 2) read Arabic material of limited complexity and variety (e.g., simple narrative and descriptive texts, directions); 3) write notes and short letters describing an event or a personal experience. An important objective of the course is to familiarize students with basic facts about the geography, history, and culture of the Arab world.

NES 113-210 Intermediate Arabic

Continued development of the four language skills through extensive use of graded materials on a wide variety of topics. Increased attention is given to developing native-like pronunciation and grammatical accuracy, but the main focus in on developing communication skills.

NES 311-312 Intermediate Advanced Arabic

Students are introduced to authentic, unedited Arabic language materials ranging from poems, short stories, and plays to newspaper articles dealing with social, political, and cultural issues. Emphasis is on developing fluency in oral expression through discussion of issues presented in the reading selections. There is more focus on the development of native-like pronunciation and accurate use of grammatical structures than on elementary and intermediate Arabic. A primary objective of the course is the development of writing skill through free composition exercises in topics of interest to individual students.

Specialized Courses

NES 125 Elementary Arabic for Native Speakers

This one-semester course is designed for students who can speak and understand a spoken Arabic dialect (Egyptian, Lebanese, Syrian, Iraqi, etc.) but have little or no knowledge of written Arabic, known as Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic, or Fusha. The focus of the course will be on developing the reading and writing skills through the use of graded, but challenging and interesting materials. As they develop their reading and writing skills, students will be learning about Arab history, society, and culture. Classroom activities will be conducted totally in Arabic. Students will not be expected or pressured to speak in Classical Arabic, but will use their own dialects for speaking purposes. However, one of the main goals of the course will be to help the development of the skills to communicate and understand Educated Spoken Arabic, a form of Arabic that is based on the spoken dialects but uses the educated vocabulary and structures of Fusha.

NES 133-134 Introduction to Qur'anic and Classical Arabic

This course is designed for students who are interested in reading the Qur'an and other texts in Classical Arabic. Authentic texts, principally from the Qur'an, the Hadith (the sayings of Muhammad), and classical poetry will form the basis for study. By the end of the semester, students will have mastered many of the common grammatical structures and will have a good working vocabulary. This sequence provides a firm foundation on which to build an advanced study of Classical Arabic. No prior knowledge of Arabic is required.

NES 416 Structure of the Arabic Language

The course consists of a brief history of Arabic and its place in the Semitic language family, the sociolinguistic situation in the Arab world (diglossia), Arabic phonology (sounds, emphasis, syllable structure, and related processes), morphology (verb forms and derivational patterns), and syntax (basic sentence structures, cases, and moods). Prerequisite: one year of Arabic or a linguistics background.