ARAB 420
Current Events from the Maghreb and the Middle East
Last Offered Fall 2018
Division I
This course is not offered in the current catalog

Students in this course will engage with authentic materials from Arabic media, covering the Maghreb and the Middle East. Using original content from newspapers, magazines, websites, TV channels, podcasts, and specialized news outlets, the course will take students from intermediate high to advanced high level. Through their active engagement with the course materials, students will acquire a very diverse vocabulary, strengthen their mastery of Arabic grammar, and perform advanced linguistic skills in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Moreover, students in this course will be able to produce substantial narratives about complicated and abstract topics, argue for or against an idea, and discuss a variety of topics in MSA. In addition to enhancing students’ listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, close, critical attention will be paid to deepening students’ cultural competence. Students are expected to give three presentations through the course of the semester, write weekly response papers in Arabic, participate in a collective project, and produce a final paper about a topic of their choosing in consultation with the instructor.