Summer Arabic Program

Program Description

The CAMES summer program in the Arabic language offers intensive courses at seven different levels: Introductory, High Introductory, Low Intermediate, Intermediate, High Intermediate, Advanced and Superior. The program emphasizes the instruction of Modern Standard Arabic or MSA ( fusha).

The program runs for six and a half weeks offering highly intensive course work in Arabic. Each day, students receive 5 hours of classroom instruction in MSA and 1 hour of classroom instruction in Colloquial Arabic. Classes run daily from Monday to Friday, offering 30 hours of classroom instruction each week. The total of 186 hours of MSA and Colloquial instruction is the equivalent of 9 credit hours at AUB, which may be transferred to other universities.

Instructors use the Georgetown Arabic language textbooks by Brustad, al-Batal, and al-Tonsi. Textbooks are complemented with supplementary materials to enrich the students knowledge in the Arabic language and culture.

The program is highly demanding, so students are expected to be totally committed and attend classroom and do homework on a daily basis. The typical daily workload in the CAMES summer Arabic program entails 6 hours of classroom instruction (MSA + Colloquial) and a minimum of 4-5 hours of home work.

The CAMES Summer Arabic Program gives admission priority to academics and students who are taking the course as part of their academic careers. All applicants are required to have completed at least one semester of college or university study or the equivalent before being accepted. Students who are accepted will sit for a placement exam on the first day of the program. This exam, together with the information to be provided in the application about the student's knowledge of Arabic and the Arabic writing sample required will determine the level of Arabic instruction appropriate for the applicant.