Arabic

Overview Pre-requisites/Preclusions Full Course Descriptions E-Learning and Links

Overview

Courses offered under the centre are as follows:

Semester I, 2024-2025
Course Code	Course Name
LAR1201	Arabic 1
LAR2201	Arabic 2
LAR3201	Arabic 3
LAR4201/ LAR4201HM	Arabic 5

Semester II, 2024-2025
Course Code	Course Name
LAR1201	Arabic 1
LAR2201	Arabic 2
LAR3202	Arabic 4
LAR4202/LAR4202HM	Arabic 6

There are no pre-requisites or qualifying test for Level 1000 language courses. But these courses are meant only for students without any prior knowledge. Those who have learned the language through formal and informal means (incl. through external courses, self-study or an extended stay in the target language country) must contact CLS to take a placement test.

Students may face disciplinary action by the University for making a false declaration.

Pre-requisites/Preclusions

Pre-requisites/Preclusions
Course Code	Course Name	Unit	Student Requires
Course Code	Course Name	Unit	Pre-requisite	Preclusion

LAR1201	Arabic 1	4	Nil	Nil
LAR2201	Arabic 2	4	LAR1201 or placement test. Student must not have read a higher level course than this course.	Nil
LAR3201	Arabic 3	4	LAR2201 or placement test. Student must not have read a higher level course than this course.	Nil
LAR3202	Arabic 4	4	LAR3201 or placement test. Student must not have read a higher level course than this course.	Nil
LAR4201	Arabic 5	4	LAR3202 or placement test. Student must not have read a higher level course than this course.	LAR4201HM
LAR4201HM	Arabic 5	5	LAR3202 or placement test. Student must not have read a higher level course than this course.	LAR4201
LAR4202	Arabic 6	4	LAR4201 or placement test. Student must not have read a higher level course than this course.	LAR4202HM
LAR4202HM	Arabic 6	5	LAR4201 or placement test. Student must not have read a higher level course than this course.	LAR4202

Undergraduate students from cohort 2020 and before should read CLS Level-4000 courses with the HM suffix (for example, LAR4201HM) worth 5MCs per course. Undergraduate students from cohort 2021 onwards should read CLS L4000 courses without the HM suffix (for example, LAR4201) worth 4MCs per course.

Full Course Descriptions

LAR1201 Arabic 1

This course is meant for students with no prior knowledge of the target language. Students with prior knowledge (including spoken proficiency) must contact CLS to take a placement test.

Units	Workload	Pre-requisite	Preclusion	Cross-listing(s)
4	4-0-0-3-3	Nil	Nil	Nil

LAR2201 Arabic 2

Arabic 2 is a beginners' course, and is a continuation of Arabic 1. It is an integrated course which will help students gain higher basic proficiency in the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), grammar, vocabulary (including the Arabic alphabet), for personal interaction and communication in authentic situations.

Units	Workload	Pre-requisite	Preclusion	Cross-listing(s)
4	4-0-0-3-3	LAR1201 or passed placement test	Nil	Nil

LAR3201 Arabic 3

Arabic 3 is a continuation of Arabic 2. Its focus is to improve upon the students' ability to interact in the language, augment their active vocabulary, and build upon their structural knowledge. An inductive/communicative approach is employed with all skills; the students are given real-life situations so that they can put into practice their acquired vocabulary and newly learnt grammar points. Also, students are exposed to a good amount of comprehensible input, such as real conversations between native speakers, audios of newscasts, and part of movies. They are also asked to write short compositions using newly taught structures and vocabulary.

Units	Workload	Pre-requisite	Preclusion	Cross-listing(s)
4	4-0-0-3-3	LAR2201 or passed placement test	Nil	Nil

LAR3202 Arabic 4

Arabic 4 is a continuation of Arabic 3. In this course, all skills of the language are equally dealt with. Further emphasis is placed on students' ability to communicate more fluently. More authentic language situations are brought into the classroom and used as language models. Students are asked to personalize these situations, putting into practice newly acquired vocabulary and structures. To consolidate the students' learning of new vocabulary and structures, they are asked to write compositions on a variety of topics in a way that match their linguistic ability.

Units	Workload	Pre-requisite	Preclusion	Cross-listing(s)
4	4-0-0-3-3	LAR3201 or passed placement test	Nil	Nil

LAR4201/LAR4201HM Arabic 5

LAR4201 is an advanced course and a continuation of LAR3202 Arabic 4. In this course, students will achieve better oral fluency, considerable ability in listening and reading comprehension, and better writing proficiency. Oral activities in form of group work, pair work, role plays and presentations will be conducted regularly in both lectures and tutorials. Students will listen to authentic listening comprehension materials, such as lectures, newscasts and talk shows. In addition to readings on a variety of topics the students will read stories. Using the vocabulary learned in lectures and tutorials, students will write compositions on different topics.

Undergraduate students from cohort 2020 and before should read CLS Level-4000 courses with the HM suffix (for example, LAR4201HM) worth 5 units per course. Undergraduate students from cohort 2021 onwards should read CLS L4000 courses without the HM suffix (for example, LAR4201) worth 4 units per course.

Units	Workload	Pre-requisite	Preclusion	Cross-listing(s)
4/5	4-0-0-3-3 (for 4 units) 4-0-0-4-4.5 (for 5 units)	LAR3202 or passed placement test	Nil	Nil

LAR4202/LAR4202HM Arabic 6

LAR4202 Arabic 6 is an upper advanced Arabic course and a continuation of LAR4201 Arabic 5. It is intended to make students proficient language users. The students will be better in their speaking skill through group discussions, pair work and oral presentations. They will listen to advanced listening comprehension materials such as newscasts, talk shows and movies. In addition to the textbook readings, students will read stories and newspaper articles. They will learn to write new types of essays such as descriptive, narrative and argumentative ones, using more selective language and complex structures. Higher level word-formation processes and sentence structures will be taught.

Undergraduate students from cohort 2020 and before should read CLS Level-4000 courses with the HM suffix (for example, LAR4202HM) worth 5 units per course. Undergraduate students from cohort 2021 onwards should read CLS L4000 courses without the HM suffix (for example, LAR4202) worth 4 units per course.

Units	Workload	Pre-requisite	Preclusion	Cross-listing(s)
4/5	4-0-0-3-3 (for 4 units) 4-0-0-4-4.5 (for 5 units)	LAR4201 or passed placement test	Nil	Nil

* Workload: A-B-C-D-E
The components are as follow:
A: no. of lecture hours per week
B: no. of tutorial hours per week
C: no. of lab hours per week
D: no. of hours for projects, assignments, fieldwork etc per week
E: no. of hours for preparatory work by a student per week

E-Learning and Links