Programme

The course introduces the study of Modern Standard Arabic, with the aim of developing basic skills in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. In the first part of the course, students will acquire knowledge of the Arabic alphabet, learning to recognize and write graphemes and to master their correct pronunciation, together with the main phonetic and phonological features.
At the same time, the fundamental grammatical structures of the language will be introduced, relating to both the nominal and verbal systems.
From a communicative perspective, the course will provide the vocabulary and linguistic functions necessary to manage simple everyday situations, such as greeting, introducing oneself, talking about one’s family, describing people and objects, expressing possession, and referring to daily activities. Teaching activities will include guided reading and writing exercises, listening to short dialogues, oral production in controlled contexts, and initial activities in written comprehension and production, along with an introduction to the use of basic lexicographic tools.
The course will also include elements useful for contextualizing the language, offering an initial overview of the Arab world, the differences between the standard language and dialectal varieties, and some sociolinguistic aspects.

Core Documentation

Solimando C., Salem A., Imparare l’arabo ascoltando. Roma, Carocci Editore.
Darghmouni S., Kalima. Corso di lingua araba, Milano, Hoepli.
Additional teaching materials, exercises, and supplementary texts will be provided by the instructor during the course.

Attendance

Attendance is not compulsory; however, it is strongly recommended due to the progressive and language-based nature of the course. Regular participation in lectures, language practice sessions, listening activities in the language laboratory, and conversation activities facilitates the achievement of the learning objectives and the acquisition of the skills expected for the course. Non-attending students are required to contact the instructor in order to agree on any supplementary materials and specific examination preparation requirements.

Type of evaluation

The language proficiency assessment is aimed at verifying the basic language skills acquired during the course and is divided into several parts. The assessment, with an indicative duration of 2 hours, may include: reading and writing exercises; grammar and morphosyntactic exercises; vocalization and transcription exercises; sentence completion and transformation; comprehension of short texts; translation of sentences and short texts from Arabic into Italian and/or from Italian into Arabic; guided written production; a language laboratory test aimed at assessing listening comprehension through audio activities; a conversation test aimed at assessing the ability to engage in basic interaction in Arabic. The assessment evaluates: knowledge of fundamental grammatical structures; orthographic and morphosyntactic accuracy; written and oral comprehension; acquisition of basic vocabulary; written production skills; oral comprehension and interaction skills in Modern Standard Arabic. Passing the language proficiency assessment is a necessary requirement in order to take the oral examination. Oral Examination The oral examination consists of an interview aimed at assessing: knowledge of the linguistic structures studied; grammatical and syntactic analysis skills; comprehension and translation of the texts covered during the course; knowledge of the cultural topics addressed during the lectures. During the interview, students may be required to: read, analyze, and translate short texts; explain grammatical structures; provide linguistic and lexical commentary on the texts studied; discuss topics covered during the course.