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 (prof. Ines Peta).

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 (prof. Peta)

The course aims to stimulate a linguistic reflection on the fundamental structures of the Arabic language. In particular, the structures covered by the program will be studied in depth in order to strengthen the morphosyntactic skills of the students and make them aware of the logic of the Arabic grammatical system. To this end, consideration will be given to both the reflection of Arabic grammarians and that of linguistics in general. The explanations will use authentic examples to describe the language as it is used by speakers.

Readings/Bibliography

Bibliography of the practical language class (prof. Darghmouni)

- S. Darghmouni, Kalima / parola. Lezioni di scrittura e grammatica araba con esercizi, vol. 2, Mondadori, Milano 2019.

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

- Texts provided by the teacher and available on IOL platform.

Bibliography of the official course

- G. Mion, L. D'Anna, Grammatica di arabo standard moderno, Hoepli, Milano 2021.

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

- In-depth material provided by the teacher available on IOL platform.

Teaching methods

1) Frontal lessons

2) Interactive lessons

3) Activities in pairs and / or in groups

Assessment methods

The exam is composed of the following parts:

a) a written test and an oral exam (practical language class)

b) An oral exam with the course professor (prof. Peta).

a.1) The written test with the tutor 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.

a.2) The oral exam (practical language class) 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.

b) The oral exam with the course professor will consist in: 1) reading and translation 2) morphosyntactic and lexical questions 3) theoretical question on contents. To the vote of this exam will contribute the average between the written test and the oral exam of practical language class.

Teaching tools

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

Office hours

See the website of Ines Peta