MOROCCO

This course is designed to provide students additional training in Moroccan colloquial Arabic. It is based on the intensive colloquial course that students take during the first two weeks of the program and helps students gain additional proficiency in the local spoken dialect. The course introduces words, phrases, expressions, and structures used in everyday life, as well as Moroccan culture and the cultural context of communication.

This class is an opportunity to engage critically with all aspects of the experience studying in Morocco, and further understanding of various issues in Moroccan culture and society. The texts and topics addressed include language, history, economics, literature, religion, arts, politics, and gender issues. The course takes into account the heterogeneity of Moroccan society, keeping in mind the country's connection to its broader geographical context. It views Morocco from both local and regional standpoints while simultaneously relating it to student's own perspectives. This comparative approach serves to identify the dynamics of Moroccan culture's major patterns and what drives the behavior, attitudes, value,s and judgments of Moroccans.

This course examines the Koran as the most important book to Muslims worldwide and one of the sources from which the religion of Islam derives. It discusses the faith of Islam, how Muslims traditionally relate to the Koran, how the Koran can be read in the light of today's civilization, and whether it holds any relevance to contemporary topics such as the environment, economics, science, or art. 

This course is designed for students who are able to communicate at a basic level and have completed at least 120 hours of prior study of the Arabic language. It further develops vocabulary and continuously introduces students to more complex sentence structure and higher level grammatical skills throughout the semester. Simultaneously, it introduces various aspects of Arab culture and history. All class exercises and activities are either task-based or student centered. Aside from the primary textbook, students are exposed to other materials such as magazine articles, daily newspapers and short stories. Course highlights include using words and expressions to handle successfully uncomplicated tasks in straightforward social situations; an in-depth knowledge of various aspects of Arab culture (social customs, religious traditions, family life) with particular focus on Morocco; expressing personal meaning; communicating information and expressing thoughts about familiar topics; reading with proper pronunciation and comprehending themes and topics; creating statements and formulating questions based on familiar material; and identifying information in basic personal and social contexts.