31199 - Arab Language and Linguistics 2

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student has good morphosyntactic and communicative skills. He understands and produces simple texts related to familiar topics, communicates in activities that require exchange of information on different common topics and is able to express opinions, feelings, hopes and projects. He is competent in the four language skills described in the parameters set by the Council of Europe. His acquired skills are located between levels A2 and B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference. He also knows the main cultural characteristics of classical Arab civilization and is able to analyze short authentic texts of the time belonging to different genres, recognizing their morphosyntactic structures and specific terminology.

Course contents

The course consists of two parts: practical language class and official course.

Practical language class

The course aims to acquire the morphosyntactic aspects of the Arabic language at the intermediate level. In particular, the students will study the derived forms of the verb, the relative clauses, kāna and his sisters, inna and his sisters. Students will also expand their communication skills, with particular regard to the ability to exchange information and express opinions, feelings and sensations. Finally, the course aims to implement the translational skills from Arabic to Italian acquired by students during the first year as well as to introduce the translation of short and simple sentences from Italian to Arabic.

Official course

The course aims to stimulate a linguistic and cultural reflection on the classical Arab civilization through the theoretical description of the main characteristics of the latter and the guided analysis of authentic texts belonging to different genres. In particular we will examine literary works in poetry and prose, philosophical, theological and juridical treatises, hadīths, texts of Muslim-Christian polemical literature. In this way, students will strengthen their morphosyntactic and lexical skills and their translation skills, gaining awareness of the inseparability of the language-culture link.

Readings/Bibliography

Bibliography of the practical language class

- A. Salem, C. Solimando, Imparare l’arabo conversando, Carocci, Roma 2011 (units 1-5)

- L. Veccia Vaglieri, M. Avino, Grammatica teorico pratica della lingua araba, vol. II, Istituto per l’Oriente Carlo Alfonso Nallino, Roma 2018.

- E. Baldissera, Dizionario Italiano-Arabo e Arabo-Italiano (Seconda Edizione), Zanichelli, Bologna 2014.

- Texts provided by the teachers.

Bibliography of the official course

- A. Hourani, Storia dei popoli arabi, Mondadori, Milano: Part I - Part II

- H. Toelle e K. Zakharia, Alla scoperta della letteratura araba, dal VI secolo ai nostri giorni, ARGO, Lecce, 2010: Part I

- A. Ventura, L'islam sunnita nel periodo classico (VII-XVI secolo), in Giovanni Filoramo (a cura di), Islam, Laterza, Bari 2018 (digital edition).

- C. D’Ancona (a cura di), Storia della filosofia nell’Islam medievale, 2 voll., Einaudi, Torino 2005.

- P. Larcher, Le système verbal de l'arabe classique, 2e éd. revue et augmentée, Presses Universitaires de Provence, Aix-en-Provence 2012.

- Authentic Arabic texts provided by the teacher

- Further bibliographical information and in-depth material will be suggested and / or provided by the teacher during the lessons.

 

Teaching methods

- Frontal lessons

- Interactive lessons

- Activities in pairs and / or in groups

Assessment methods

The exam is composed of the following parts: a written test and an oral exam with the tutors and an oral exam with the course professor.

The written test with the tutors is structured as follows: proof of comprehension of a short text and verification of lexical skills (30% of the value of the final evaluation), exercises to verify morphosyntactic skills (30% of the value of the final evaluation), translation of a short text from Arabic to Italian and of short sentences from Italian to Arabic (40% of the value of the final evaluation). The use of the dictionary is permitted. Global execution time: 2 hours and 30 minutes.

The oral exam with the tutors consists of reading a vocalized text and answering simple questions in Arabic on the text and / or on one of the topics covered during the course.

The oral exam with the course professor will consist in the verification of the acquisition of the studied subjects. To the vote of this exam will contribute the average between the written test and the oral exam performed with the tutors.

Teaching tools

Audio / video texts, power-points and other materials provided by the teachers.

Office hours

See the website of Ines Peta