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Arabic Program

Visit our summer program in Arabic and North African Studies, ARANAS

The Faculty

The Program

The Arabic language program at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane (AUI) aims at fostering knowledge and understanding of the Arab world through intensive proficiency-based teaching of Arabic language and culture.

The Arabic language summer program started in 1999 and since then has Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced levels. The success of the program is reflected in the number of students who participate in the summer program. Starting with 7 students in 1999, the number increased to 17 students in 2000, 27 students in 2001, 37 students in 2002, 49 students in 2003, and 85 students in 2004.

The Arabic language program (ARA & ARB) is an undergraduate credit program for AUI full-time students who need to meet the university Arabic language requirement for their bachelor degrees. It also caters the needs of semester-abroad undergraduate students.

The Arabic language program offers its courses during the Fall, Spring, and summer semesters. In addition, some intensive courses are also offered during Fall and Spring semesters which correspond to a year's program of Arabic.

Poetry Evenings

Since its beginning, the Arabic unit at AUI has organised a poetry evening each term. These evenings are either held by the staff of the Arabic unit or with the assistance of Arabiyat Club at AUI, or The House of Poetry in Morocco.

In these evenings, poems are usually read in different languages: Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, Berber, English, Spanish and French. The main goal of these evenings is to spread the culture of literature among students, to nurture their taste for art and to get them used to listening to poetry.

The Arabic Self Access Studies Center

The Arabic Self Access Studies Center is the Arabic Unit’s resource center. It has both printed and audio visual materials. It provides students with Arabic daily newspapers, magazines, textbooks, and novels.

The center shows Arabic films, followed by discussion, and arranges lectures in Arabic related to Arabic language, literature and culture. The center is used by students to do their homework, find material for their presentations, read newspapers, and watch videos. To assist students with their learning of Arabic, teaching assistants -all native speakers of Arabic- work at the center.

Course Program

At the beginning of each term, students set up pre program proficiency tests. Their placement will depend on their performance in a written test and in an oral proficiency interview. Proficiency guidelines are those set by The American Council on Teaching Foreign Languages (ACTFL).

Credits are defined in terms of courses, with each carrying 3 semester credit hours. Three levels -- Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced -- are offered every semester. This corresponds to 45 contact hours. As to the summer intensive program, the beginning courses carry 4 credits while intermediate and advanced courses carry only 3 credits each.
Upon enrollment, students may take 6 credit hours a semester by choosing an intensive Arabic program which corresponds to 90 contact hours a semester.

Credit transfer is at the discretion of students’ home institutions.

For appropriate course levels, see the detailed university core curriculum for each undergraduate program. Students coming from outside the Moroccan school system and who do not have proficiency in Arabic and/or French, will need to complete a language requirement for graduation. They may choose French or Spanish in combination with at least one Arabic to satisfy the 7 to 8 SCH language requirements for a Bachelor degree. For example:

• Two Spanish plus one Arabic
• Two French plus one Arabic
• Two Arabic plus one French or Spanish

Arabic for Non-Native Speakers

N.B. Beginning Arabic 1 & 2 (ARA 1311 & 1312) carry 3 credits and are offered during regular semesters. During the summer intensive program these two courses are coded ARA 1411 & 1412 and carry 4 credits.

Courses for Native Speakers

Courses designed for students who score below 50% in the Arabic Language Placement Test are:

Courses designed for students who score above 50% in the Arabic Language Placement Test are: