Arabic for Diplomacy, International Relations and Politics

Course Description

USF Code: FOL 4102

Course description:  

The course offers students interested in the Arab world and Arabic Language the opportunity to develop their skills in Arabic Language for Politics, Diplomacy and International Relations. It assumes no previous knowledge of (or experience in) these fields. The course will introduce students to significant aspects of informative sentences, concepts, technical terms, phrases, idioms and collocations of words used in:

A) Diplomacy, International Relations and Politics
B) Structures of intergovernmental, governmental and quasi-governmental organizations and their policies in the Arab world.
C) Systems of legislative and executive institutions in the Arab world.
D) Critical perspectives of concepts of Arab politics and diplomacy from Arab media. The most important attribute of this course is that it's designed to provide students with a focused look at diplomacy, politics and international relations in the Arab world while gaining proficiency in Arabic language.  
 

Course objectives:

The course objectives are to strengthen and build upon your Arabic language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) and terminology as they relate specifically to politics, diplomacy and international relations. Students will give frequent 10-15 minute oral presentations to develop oral production skills and proficiency. Throughout the course materials will be used to provide exposure to various aspects of the language of politics, diplomacy and international relations in the Arabic speaking world. Additionally, you will learn to use an Arabic dictionary of politics and diplomacy. 
 
The Arabic Language for Politics, Diplomacy and International Relations course aims to encourage you to:  

• have the ability to discuss issues regarding politics and diplomacy through Arabic language
• deepen your knowledge of Arab and international relations  
• enhance your professional and academic Arabic communication skills  
• develop confident effective presentation skills  
• engage successfully in interviews with people or with the media  
• better understand Arab society and culture         

Method and approach:

The students will prepare the lessons at home (using texts from newspapers, magazines and textbooks…), do homework exercises from handouts, listen to texts and/or speeches from internet links, read vocabulary and write short sentences and/or comment about the contents of the texts. Students will research concepts and technical term definitions from an Arabic – English dictionary. Classroom work will also consist of further practice and clarification of ambiguities.  
 
Examples of class activities:

• Listening to political and diplomatic texts from DVDs.  
• Reading and Comprehension of texts from Arabic newspapers, magazines, official documents and textbooks.
• Listening to political speeches and/or conversations between politicians and people.                                               
• Making a short conversation with classmates on different political and diplomatic topics through practicing basic concepts and terminology mentioned in selected texts.
• Writing an essay or deciphering speeches and/or situations.
• Discussing a subject or topics.  
• Learning grammatical rules in context.