The Arabic for Non-Natives Institute is specially designed to teach students Arabic while providing insight into the literature, culture, history, and politics of the Middle East. To this end, there exists a set of didactic goals the Institute seeks to achieve.
Institute Goals
First and foremost, we teach students how to articulate, read, and write Arabic sounds (phonemes) along with the lexicon, grammar, and structure necessary to develop the four language skills: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Furthermore, we emphasize cultural competence in our students by introducing them to the Palestinian community, its customs, traditions, geography, and cultural and intellectual formation. These opportunities also provide students with useful information on Arab heritage and its literary, historical, and ethical elements. Our Institute aims to produce students who are able to use their language skills in a variety of personal and professional settings, and as such we equip students with a strong background in contemporary political, economic, and ecological terminology. In addition, we emphasize the vocabulary necessary to understand Arabic language sciences: ilm al-nahw (‘the science of syntax’), ilm al-sarf (‘the science of morphology’), literature, rhetoric, and criticism.
Our multifaceted approach provides students with a broad, in-depth understanding of the Arabic language and culture, putting aside students' native language as much as possible and encouraging students to experience Arabic first-hand by interacting frequently with native speakers. Our courses instill in students not only an understanding of the Arabic language, but a greater understanding and capability of language learning in general. Above all, we seek to ensure that students are meeting their own goals for language acquisition and cultural awareness, allowing us to produce confident and proficient speakers, listeners, readers, and writers of the Arabic language.