Course Syllabus for SPAR 120
Spoken Arabic Level I: Beginners level (SPAR 120) Spring 2014
Course description:
This course is designed for people who have never studied Arabic before. Students learn Colloquial
Palestinian Arabic in order to communicate in daily life. The methodology centers on short texts which
teach the basic vocabulary and grammar of the dialect. The texts are written also in Arabic alphabet
for students who prefer to read the dialect in Arabic letters.
Text : Halloun, Moin. “Spoken Arabic for Foreigners: An Introduction to the Palestinian Dialect
Volume I.” Bethlehem 2010.
Evaluation:
Participation: 20%
Mini presentation: 10%
Quizzes (3): 15%
Final Exam 25%
Course Schedule:
Week 1:
Unit 1: pg. 1-9
Learning how to use the book, signs and symbols.
Learning personal pronouns: ex. 2 Practice saying pronouns with prepositional phrases.
Present tense: no verb to be. Practice sentences in present tense. Ex. 5-6
The definite Article: how to use it in Arabic. Ex. 7. Asking questions in Arabic: ex. 8.
Review: Personal pronouns. Questions. Ex 9-12
Noun negation: ex. 13. Demonstrative pronouns Ex. 14
Text completions Ex. 16-23. Active participles ex. 24-25
Week 2:
Unit 2-3: pg. 11-20
Unit 2:pg. 11-16
Useful phrases dialogues ex. 1-3
Verbs: Ex. 4. Using verbs in sentences: ex. 5-7 Verb practice 8-9
Questions: ex. 10-11
Text reading and comprehension questions: ex. 12-13. Text completion/writing 14-16
Unit 3: pg. 17-20
Reading and understanding dialogues ex. 1-2. Learning how to use “but” in sentences. Ex. 4 New
verbs practice ex. 5. Adverbs of time ex. 6
Reading texts ex. 9-10.
Week 3:
Unit 4: pg. 21-28
Verb “to be” past tense ex. 1-5. Speaking practice. Text completion/answering questions ex. 6-7.
New vocabulary and dialogues ex. 8-13. Verb negation ex. 14-16.
Using “with” in sentences. Ex. 18-20. Speaking practice. Review for quiz unit 1-4.
Week 4:
Quiz on units 1-4.
Unit 5-6: pg. 29-40
Unit 5:
Dialogue/new vocabulary ex. 1. Adjectives: feminine, masculine, and plural forms ex. 3.
Practice: forming sentences ex. 4-7. Review: vocabulary and answering questions orally ex. 8-10.
Verb conjugations and translating ex. 11-14
Unit 6:
Warm up-dialogue reading ex. 1. Nouns with possessive pronouns ex. 2-7. Using the two “or”s in
Arabic ex. 8. Speaking practice ex. 8-13. Forming sentences ex. 14-16.
Verbs: past tense review ex. 17-18. Present tense verbs ex. 19. Making sentences with the known
verbs.
Week 5
Unit 7: pg. 41-47
Reading a dialogue and comprehension/new vocabulary ex. 1. Learning the dual and numbers ex.
2-3. Reading: short story ex. 4-5. Asking questions about amounts/numbers ex. 6-8.
Practice asking questions and answering/partner work. Ex. 10-11. New verbs/using them in
context ex. 12-13.
Week 6
Unit 8: pg. 49-58
New vocabulary through texts ex. 1-2. Imperative ex. 3. Simple present tense reviewed ex. 5-11
Reading/speaking/translating about texts ex. 12-15. Object pronouns with verbs ex. 16-18
Preposistions with possessive suffixes ex. 19-20. Speaking and reading texts. Review units 4-8
Week 7
Quiz on units 4-8.
Unit 9-10: pg. 59-71
Unit 9: pg. 59-64:
Common dialogues/common words ex. 1. “There is/isn’t/There are/aren’t ex. 2-5.
Speaking and reading texts. Translating 6-10. The two “when”s in Arabic ex. 11. Mini skits:
practicing dialogues.
Unit 10: pg. 65-71:
Warm up: New vocabulary through dialogue ex. 1. Telling the time ex. 2-7. Asking
permission/saying excuse me ex. 8. Talking about schedules ex. 9-13.
Future tense 14-16. When to use subjunctive tense ex. 17-19. Asking and answering questions and
reviewing active participles ex. 20-22.
Week 8
Unit 11-12: pg. 73-85
Unit 11: pg. 73-77:
Warm-up: present a dialogue to the class(pairs). Ex. 1. Practice saying indirect statements ex. 2.
Answer the questions and practice new verbs in present tense ex. 3-5. Useful phrases ex. 6-7.
Verb practice conjugating in all tenses ex. 8-10.
Unit 12: pg. 79-85:
New vocabulary and useful phrases ex. 1-2 Verb practice 3-4. Reading comprehension ex. 6-8.
Time phrases ex. 9-12. Reading/speaking/declining of verbs ex. 13-19.
Review for quiz unit 9-12.
Week 9
Quiz on units 9-12.
Unit 13-14: pg. 87-94
Unit 13: pg. 87-90:
Speaking practice ex. 1-2. New verbs practice declining and making sentences ex. 3-4. Adjectives in
Arabic, f., m., and plural ex. 5-7
Unit 14: pg. 91-94:
Reading and practicing new vocabulary: pair work in answering questions and making sentences ex.
1-2. Uses of “why” and answers “because and “in order to” ex. 3. More questions ex. 4-7.
Learning useful vocabulary and phrases 8-9. Grammar: asking how much ex. 10.
Week 10
Unit 15-16: pg. 95-105
Unit 15: pg. 95-100:
Expressing desire/wish ex. 2. Verb review and answering questions 3-6. New vocabulary and texts
ex. 6. Sentence completion ex. 8-11. Using “if” in sentences ex. 12-13.
Verb review: making sentences and telling stories.
Presentation: Students present information about themselves to the class. Review for final exam
units 1-15.
Unit 16: pg. 101-106:
New dialogues to learn new phrases ex. 1. Learning vegetables and fruit ex. 2. Comparatives ex 4-7.
Reading comprehension ex. 8-11.
Review for all units 1-16.
Week 11: Final Exam