DOCUMENT R: SYLLABUS
1. Date Prepared: March, 2012
2. Prepared by: Luke Springman
3. Department: Languages and Cultures
4. Course Numbers: ARABIC 102
5. Course Title: Arabic II
6. Credit Hours: 3
Goal 8 - Second Language
Goal 4 - Cultures and Diversity
2 GEPs
1 GEP
7. Prerequisites: ARABIC 101 or the equivalent proficiency level.
8. Catalog Description:
Develops further the four language skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing to a
proficiency level regarded as basic communication in Arabic. ARABIC 102 is for students who
wish to continue studying Arabic at the second level. Students earn two General Education
Points for Basic Communication in a Second Language and one General Education Point for
Cultures and Diversity. General Education Goal 8 may also be satisfied through placement
testing as approved by the Department of Languages and Cultures. Generally, students with two
or more years of ARABIC in high school would be able to satisfy General Education Goal 8 by
taking the placement test. Arabic language study is taught in its cultural context, including
history, culture, diversity, and comparison with students’ native culture. Practice in language
laboratory and / or use of electronic language-learning media is required. Students must have
passed ARABIC 101 or the equivalent in order to enroll in ARABIC 102. ARABIC 102 is offered
every semester.
9. Content Outline:
ARABIC 102 is structured according to cultural topics appropriate for this level. Topics may
include cuisine and dining rituals, contemporary gender issues, urban life, geography,
environmental issues, health care, travel in Arabic-speaking countries, holiday customs,
education, and limited historical topics. Specific skills in language production (speaking and
writing), reading, listening comprehension are presented and developed with each topic.
Reading ability develops more quickly than speaking and writing, which allows exposure to more
sophisticated topics in Arabic before students are able to speak or write above the rudimentary
level. However, students will not be able to produce spontaneously the new information and
skills they learn in structured lessons. A course plan could include but is not limited to the
following, with the understanding that the structures introduced with the topics could vary
depending on the instructor’s prerogative or textbook’s structure:
Potential Topics
Health and the
Body
Potential Skills
words for parts of the body and
rudimentary expressions related to health
Fashion and
Dress in Arabic
Cultures
Talking About the
Weather
articles of clothing; shopping
Cuisine in
Selected Cultures
of the ArabicSpeaking world
Popular Music in
Selected ArabicSpeaking Cultures
Family and
Friends; Life
Events
words for food; eating and drinking
expressions; shopping for food
Potential New Structures
negation of words and
phrases, expressing the
absence of something
review personal pronouns and
prepositional phrases,
demonstrative forms
review equational sentences
and introduce jussive verb
forms
introduction of nisba
adjectives
words for playing instruments; types of
music
verbal and nominal sentences
and word order; gerunds
describing and expressing emotions
enclitic forms previously
learned; enclitic pronouns
Discussion of
Selected Current
Events
recognizing names of people and places in
Arabic
nisba adjectives continued
expressing likes and dislikes; weather
expressions
10. Methods:
a. Students entering Bloomsburg University who have taken four years or more of a second
language in high school will be waived of the requirement and receive 2 GEPs. Students
with fewer than 4 years of learning in a foreign language will take a placement test.
Students who place above the second level (x.102) will be considered to have fulfilled the
General Education Goal 8 Basic Communication in a Second Language. Students who
successfully complete a language course above the second level (above x.102) and who did
not take the placement test, will also satisfy goal 8.
b. During class sessions students spend most of the time on a variety of activities to exercise
spoken Arabic, often working in small groups or pairs in order to maximize time spent on
speaking. Spoken Arabic may also include voice recordings and on-line interactive speaking
exercises. Many activities which focus on writing, reading, and listening comprehension
could take place outside class sessions. Activities in class sessions and outside class sessions
may require use of electronic media; the language laboratory will be available to facilitate
activities using media. Homework assignments will also include a variety of writing
assignments, texts, resources from the library, and realia (authentic objects specific to
Arabic-speaking culture).
c. Maximum suggested class size: 25. Teaching language requires intensive and often
immediate feedback and intensive interaction among students and between the instructor
and the student.
d. ARABIC 102 is offered every semester.
e. Activities outside class, such as participation in informal conversation groups or film
viewings, may be assigned.
f. Students may be awarded credit for co-curricular activities, such as participation in the
Arabic Club.
g. Alternate assignments may be provided as of out-of-class or co-curricular activities.
11. Student Learning Objectives:
By the end of ARABIC 102, students attain a minimal ability to communicate in Arabic in
speaking, writing, listening and reading. Students learn language skills on the basis of
selected cultural topics. Objectives are based on the Novice-High level of proficiency as
described in the standards of the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Language
(ACTFL).
Student Learning Objective
Gen. Ed. Goal
associated
with GEPS
Second
Language
11a. Create language that successfully manages a
number of uncomplicated communicative tasks in
straightforward social situations; speak and on topics
necessary for survival in the target language culture,
such as basic personal information, basic objects and
a limited number of activities, preferences and
immediate needs; respond to simple, direct
questions or requests for information; are generally
understood by sympathetic interlocutors used to
non-natives.
11b. Demonstrate and communicate basic
Cultures and
information pertaining to the cultures of the Arabic- Diversity
speaking world and compare those cultures with
their own.
11c. Compose lists, short messages, postcards, and
simple notes in order to meet limited basic practical
writing needs and communicate in writing within the
context in which the language was learned, relying
mainly on practiced material.
Second
Language
11d. Demonstrate reading comprehension for
Second
Language
instructional purposes (graded reading from
Related VALUE
Rubric Elements
Intercultural
Knowledge and
Competence: Skills
(Verbal and NonVerbal
Communication)
Intercultural
Knowledge and
Awareness:
Knowledge, Skills
(Empathy),
Attitudes
(Curiosity,
Openness)
Intercultural
Knowledge and
Competence: Skills
(Verbal and NonVerbal
Communication)
Intercultural
Knowledge and
Competence: Skills
textbooks, for example), including standardized
messages, phrases, or expressions, such as some
items on menus, schedules, timetables, maps, and
signs. Some material at a slightly higher level is
understood where the topic is already familiar to the
student.
11e. Demonstrate comprehension of short, learned
utterances and some sentence-length utterances,
particularly where context strongly supports
understanding and speech is clearly audible.
Students comprehend words and phrases from
simple questions, statements, high-frequency
commands, and courtesy formulae. They still often
require repetition, rephrasing, and/or a slowed rate
of speech for comprehension.
(Verbal and NonVerbal
Communication)
Second
Language
Intercultural
Knowledge and
Competence: Skills
(Verbal and NonVerbal
Communication)
The ability to accomplish in Arabic most if not all of the communicative tasks identified under
Course Content constitutes ACTFL proficiency at the novice-high level (see attached ACTFL
Novice-High Proficiency Rubric) and is deemed to constitute basic communication in a second
language. These competencies also align with the VALUE Rubric Intercultural Knowledge and
Competence (attached) inasmuch as students will recognize and participate in “cultural
differences in verbal and nonverbal communication and begin to negotiate a shared
understanding based on those differences,” as referenced in the Skills: verbal and nonverbal
communication Element, and to articulate, recognize and participate in cultural differences in
verbal communication (Arabic and English), as well as nonverbal communication, and negotiate
a shared understanding based on those differences. These combined ACTFL and VALUE Rubric
competencies warrant the awarding of 2 GEPs toward, and the satisfaction of, General
Education Goal 8, Second Language.
Successful completion of ARABIC 102 will also lead students to recognize new perspectives
about their own cultural rules and biases, and to demonstrate understanding of the complexity
of elements important to members of another culture in relation to its beliefs and practices
(Intercultural Knowledge and Competence: Knowledge). Students will demonstrate an ability to
identify their own cultural patterns, compare and contrast them with others, and adapt
empathically and flexibly to unfamiliar ways of being. They will be able to initiate and develop
interactions with culturally different others; they will learn to suspend judgment in valuing
interactions with culturally different others (Skills: Attitudes/Openness), to recognize intellectual
and emotional dimensions of more than one worldview (Skills: Empathy), and to ask deeper
questions about other cultures and seek out answers to these questions (Skills:
Attitudes/Curiosity). These competencies warrant the awarding of 1 GEP toward the General
Education Goal 4, Cultures and Diversity.
12. Student Assessment: Assessment instruments may include the following:
1. 11a: Individual interviews twice during the semester; recorded oral presentations;
structured dialogues during class and through electronic communication; oral responses to
reading assignments; quizzes with speaking component.
2. 11b: Tests and the final exam based on cultural topics; possible individualized projects on a
selected cultural topic; assignments for speaking, writing, listening and reading all based on
cultural topics; quizzes based on cultural topics.
3. 11c: Regular written homework assignments; written tests during the semester and written
final exam; electronic writing assignments such as blogs; composing dialogue for speaking
assignment; quizzes with writing component.
4. 11d: Reading: Structured readings edited for this level with content questions and other
written and oral responses to the content; tests and final exam contain reading sections;
quizzes with reading component.
5. 11e: Listening sections on tests and on the final; two oral interviews that also evaluate
listening comprehension; recorded audio and visual material with structured listening
comprehension exercises; quizzes with listening component.
13. Evaluation of Individual Student Performance:
The following second language communication skills will be evaluated, through the monitoring
of conversations, oral interviews, reading comprehension, quizzes and exams, written
homework, Internet activities, and special projects according to an established rubric and
assigned an appropriately weighted grade. (The components may be modified according to the
pedagogical methods of individual instructors.)




Conversational skills (speaking / listening)
Writing skills
Reading skills
Cultural awareness
14. Course Assessment:
ARABIC 102 is designed both to support the department’s established student learning
outcomes and to enhance the university’s General Education program. The assessment data
gathered from the course (see 12, above), as well as the tools used to gather the data, will be
reviewed at appropriate intervals both by the department Assessment Committee and the
department General Education Assessment Committee to verify the extent to which student
learning outcomes are being achieved. Modifications to the course will be made accordingly.
15. Supporting Materials and References:
(Items marked with an asterisk * are available in the Andruss Library.)
Abboud, Peter and Aman Attieh. Come Let's Read With The Arabs. Middlebury: Middlebury
College Schools of Arabic, 1990.
Cleveland, W.L. A History of the Modern Middle East. Third Edition. Boulder, Colorado:
Westview Press, 2004.*
Hitti, P. K. Islam: A Way of Life. Chicago: Henry Regnery Co., 1971*
Johnson-Davies, D. The Anchor Book of Modern Arabic Fiction. Second Edition. New York:
Anchor Books, 2006.*
Khalaf, Samir and Roseanne Saad Khalaf. Arab Society and Culture: An Essential Guide. Beirut:
Saki Books, 2010.
Nydell, Margaret K. Understanding Arabs: A Guide for Modern Times. New York: Intercultural
Press, 2006.
Ryding, K. A Reference Grammar ofModern Standard Arabic. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2006.
Schindlin, Raymond. 501 Arabic verbs: Fully Conjugated. Hauppauge: Barron's Educational
Series, 2007.
Schulz, Eckehard et al. A Student Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic. Cambridge: Cambridge
UP, 2004.
Shultz, Eckehard, et al. Standard Arabic: An Elementary-Intermediate Course. Cambridge:
Cambridge UP, 2000.
Starkey, P. Modern Arabic Literature. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2006.
16. Prototype Text:
Brustad, K., et al. Al-Kitaab fii Ta’allum al-’Arabiyya (Vol 1). Second edition. Washington DC:
Georgetown University Press, 2004.
ADDENDUM
ACTFL Novice-High Proficiency Rubric
To manage successfully--always (4), mostly (3), occasionally (2) never (1)--a limited number of
uncomplicated communicative tasks by creating with the language in straightforward social
situations. Conversation topics relate to basic personal information covering, for example:
_____ basic personal information
_____ basic objects
_____ limited number of activities
_____ respond to simple, direct questions or requests for information
_____ understand and communicate basic information about culture
_____ writing lists, short messages, postcards, and simple notes
_____ comprehend standardized messages, phrases, or expressions
INTERCULTURAL KNOWLEDGE AND COMPETENCE VALUE RUBRIC
for more information, please contact value@aacu.org
Definition
Intercultural Knowledge and Competence is "a set of cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills and characteristics that support
effective and appropriate interaction in a variety of cultural contexts.” (Bennett, J. M. 2008. Transformative training: Designing
programs for culture learning. In Contemporary leadership and intercultural competence: Understanding and utilizing cultural
diversity to build successful organizations, ed. M. A. Moodian, 95-110. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.)
Evaluators are encouraged to assign a zero to any work sample or collection of work that does not meet benchmark (cell one) level
performance.
Capstone
4
Knowledge
Cultural selfawareness
Knowledge
Knowledge of
cultural worldview
frameworks
Skills
Empathy
Skills
Verbal and
nonverbal
communication
Attitudes
Curiosity
Articulates insights into
own cultural rules and
biases (e.g. seeking
complexity; aware of
how her/his experiences
have shaped these rules,
and how to recognize
and respond to cultural
biases, resulting in a shift
in self-description.)
Demonstrates
sophisticated
understanding of the
complexity of elements
important to members
of another culture in
relation to its history,
values, politics,
communication styles,
economy, or beliefs and
practices.
Interprets intercultural
experience from the
perspectives of own and
more than one
worldview and
demonstrates ability to
act in a supportive
manner that recognizes
the feelings of another
cultural group.
Articulates a complex
understanding of
cultural differences in
verbal and nonverbal
communication (e.g.,
demonstrates
understanding of the
degree to which people
use physical contact
while communicating in
different cultures or use
direct/indirect and
explicit/implicit
meanings) and is able to
skillfully negotiate a
shared understanding
based on those
differences.
Asks complex questions
about other cultures,
Milestones
3
Recognizes new
perspectives about own
cultural rules and biases
(e.g. not looking for
sameness; comfortable
with the complexities
that new perspectives
offer.)
2
Identifies own cultural
rules and biases (e.g. with
a strong preference for
those rules shared with
own cultural group and
seeks the same in
others.)
Benchmark
1
Shows minimal
awareness of own
cultural rules and biases
(even those shared with
own cultural group(s))
(e.g. uncomfortable
with identifying
possible cultural
differences with
others.)
Demonstrates surface
understanding of the
complexity of elements
important to members
of another culture in
relation to its history,
values, politics,
communication styles,
economy, or beliefs and
practices.
Demonstrates adequate
understanding of the
complexity of elements
important to members
of another culture in
relation to its history,
values, politics,
communication styles,
economy, or beliefs and
practices.
Demonstrates partial
understanding of the
complexity of elements
important to members of
another culture in
relation to its history,
values, politics,
communication styles,
economy, or beliefs and
practices.
Recognizes intellectual
and emotional
dimensions of more
than one worldview and
sometimes uses more
than one worldview in
interactions.
Identifies components of
other cultural
perspectives but
responds in all situations
with own worldview.
Views the experience of
others but does so
through own cultural
worldview.
Recognizes and
participates in cultural
differences in verbal and
nonverbal
communication and
begins to negotiate a
shared understanding
based on those
differences.
Identifies some cultural
differences in verbal and
nonverbal
communication and is
aware that
misunderstandings can
occur based on those
differences but is still
unable to negotiate a
shared understanding.
Has a minimal level of
understanding of
cultural differences in
verbal and nonverbal
communication; is
unable to negotiate a
shared understanding.
Asks deeper questions
about other cultures
Asks simple or surface
questions about other
States minimal interest
in learning more about
Attitudes
Openness
seeks out and articulates
answers to these
questions that reflect
multiple cultural
perspectives.
Initiates and develops
interactions with
culturally different
others. Suspends
judgment in valuing
her/his interactions with
culturally different
others.
and seeks out answers
to these questions.
cultures.
other cultures.
Begins to initiate and
develop interactions
with culturally different
others. Begins to
suspend judgment in
valuing her/his
interactions with
culturally different
others.
Expresses openness to
most, if not all,
interactions with
culturally different
others. Has difficulty
suspending any judgment
in her/his interactions
with culturally different
others, and is aware of
own judgment and
expresses a willingness to
change.
Receptive to interacting
with culturally different
others. Has difficulty
suspending any
judgment in her/his
interactions with
culturally different
others, but is unaware
of own judgment.