Current Events in Arabic Media

Catalog description

In this three-credit, one semester, topic based course, students will be introduced to authentic, unedited Arabic language materials from Arabic newspapers, magazines, TV broadcasts and interviews, and other on-line media. The topics covered will include, among other things, politics, economics, business, sports, and women's issues. Students can suggest other topics that interest them to the teacher. Emphasis will be on developing fluency in oral and written expression through discussions, debates, presentations, and written work. The order of activities for each topic will be: reading or listening to a selection before coming to class, class discussion and/or debate, an oral presentation by the students, and, finally, a written homework assignment about the same topic. All activities are conducted entirely in Arabic. There will be more focus on the development of native-like pronunciation and accurate use of grammatical structures than at the lower levels.