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Summer Intensive Arabic Program at Cornell

June 3-July 30, 2010

Courses

This two-course sequence provides a thorough grounding in the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Short stories, anecdotes, and dialogues reflecting real life experiences with an element of authenticity and humor are used to develop the listening and speaking skills. Reading and writing are developed through a "mini-course" in Arabic on Arab history, geography, and culture. The readings start with short phrases describing Arab countries, cities, and people, and end with page-long biographies of important Arab historical figures. Songs, Jeopardy-type games, crossword puzzles and other vocabulary-building activities that recycle the words of the listening, speaking, and reading materials are used to enhance the learning and retention of vocabulary and grammatical structures. There is no prerequisite for NES 1201. The prerequisite for NES 1202 is NES 1201 or one semester of Arabic.

This two-course sequence continues the development of the four language skills through the extensive use of carefully selected graded materials on a variety of topics. The materials have been selected with the goal of generating lively classroom discussions and mastering vocabulary and structures that are useful in real-life situations in an Arabic-speaking environment outside of the classroom. While more attention is given to developing native-like pronunciation and to grammatical accuracy than in NES 1201-1202, the main focus of the course is on encouraging fluency and facility in understanding the language and communicating ideas in it. In addition to building on the linguistic foundation started in NES 1201-1202, the course continues the practice of introducing students to Arab society, history, and culture through the use of folktales, songs, poems, newspaper articles, and short stories depicting different aspects of Arab life and culture. The prerequisite for NES 1203 is NES 1202 or one year of Arabic. The prerequisite for NES 2200 is NES 1203 or equivalent.

Each of the four courses carries four credits and is equivalent to a semester of language study at Cornell. Students will have the option of signing up for one or both courses in each sequence.