Reading the Arab World is a content-based textbook for intermediate to advanced students of Arabic, designed to enhance language skills through exposure to authentic texts.
Students will develop their reading, writing, speaking, and critical thinking skills as they learn about the most contemporary issues shaping the Arab world through a range of authentic texts. The choice of texts and authors is diverse and includes texts from various sources and geographical regions in the Arab world, as well as authors of different genders, ages, generations, and schools of thought, thus ensuring a compelling range of viewpoints and angles. Each text is supported by relevant tasks such as vocabulary exercises, comprehension activities, and discussion questions.
This is an ideal resource for students of Arabic as a second or heritage language, working at or above the Intermediate-High level on the ACTFL proficiency scale.
Yehia A. Mohamed is Associate Professor of Arabic at Georgetown University in Qatar.
First published 2022 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge
The right of Yehia A. Mohamed to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-18718-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-18719-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-19784-0 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9780429197840
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Acknowledgments
Introduction (English)
Introduction (Arabic)
Guidance
Lesson
Why do girls fear
traditional marriage?
statistics in the Arab
world have changed
society’s perceptions
Lesson Five:Grandparents and
grandchildren: Love
conquers generational
differences
Lesson One:Arab youth and
visions of the
Lesson Two: Arab youth: Apathy,
frustration, and
change
Vocabulary lists
Unit Seven:Cultural and
Societal Issues
Lesson One:Introduction to the
characteristics and
characteristics of Arab society
Lesson Two: In Ramadan . . . Are
Arabs similar from the
Ocean to the Gulf?
Lesson Three: In praise of the
Kunefe
Lesson Four:The cafe in
contemporary Arab
culture
Unit Eight:The Question of
Identity
Lesson One:The components of
the Arab identity
Lesson Two: The question
of identity and
its theoretical background
Lesson Three: The problem of
identity in Iraq
Lesson Four:Imagined national
identities
Unit Nine:Intellectual and
Cultural Issues
Lesson One:Problems of
contemporary Arab
thought
Lesson Two: Questions of يبرعلا
modernity in Arab thought
Lesson Three: Contradictions in the
contemporary Arab
thought
Lesson Four:The concept
of freedom in
contemporary Arab thought
Lesson Five:Types of intellectuals
in the Arab world
Vocabulary lists
Unit Ten: Politics Issues
Lesson One:The past and the
future of the Arab world
Lesson Two: Is the Gulf
Cooperation Council
finished?
Lesson Three: Cultural diversity in
the Arab world is a
problem!
Lesson Four:Not the end of the
Arab Spring
Lesson Five: Democracy first, ةيطارقميدلا
democracy always
Vocabulary lists
Acknowledgments
This book would not have been possible without the inspiration and support of many individuals and organizations.
To my students, who inspired me to write this book in order to better meet their needs.
To Georgetown University in Qatar, who provided me with the logistical and budgetary support to complete this book.
To Qatar Foundation and its Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) for their ongoing support over the past decade.
To my colleagues and friends, who have generously spent time reviewing my manuscript and offering valuable feedback, in particular Khoulood Sakbani, Omar Khalifah, and Owen Connor.
To the publishers, who have given me copyright permissions to republish, in part or in full, their materials.
To the Routledge team for their continuous support throughout the publication process.
Methodological Notes
Role of the institution/program:
Institutions play a pivotal role in two key decisions regarding the book and its use. First, in choosing the most appropriate way to incorporate the textbook into their programs in order to meet their specific course objectives and the needs of their students. The second is in selecting the teacher best qualified to teach this book, whose skills must go beyond purely linguistic capabilities to include knowledge of the main themes of the book.
Role of the teacher:
The teacher is expected to display both language and content-based knowledge in order to help students understand and process the intellectual contents and theoretical concepts contained in the book. The teacher is also responsible for selecting the texts, vocabulary, and activities that best match the students’ learning backgrounds, abilities, and linguistic levels, and to guide the students by providing historical and contextual background regarding the topics.
Role of the student:
The student is expected to play an equally important role to that of the teacher. This begins with the pre-reading activities that are designed to introduce students to key concepts, ideas, and personalities related to the given theme. During the lesson itself, students are expected to be actively engaged with the materials through classroom interaction, as well as comprehension, production, and language enrichment exercises and activities. Post-reading activities intend to activate the knowledge and academic language that students have recently acquired through production tasks and activities related to the theme of the unit.
Target language level:
The book addresses the needs of a variety of levels from high-intermediate through high-advanced, according to the ACTFL standards. Accordingly, the teacher should select and reject lessons depending on their appropriateness for the class being taught.
Developing critical thinking skills:
This textbook has been designed with the development of critical thinking skills as a cornerstone of its approach. The selected topics, texts, and activities aim to get students to go below the surface and critically view the themes from multiple angles and theoretical perspectives.
Language of instruction:
Since the book has been designed for students at the high intermediate level and above, it was decided to use Arabic as the sole language of instruction. This may present a challenge to some students initially, but in the end, it will bear fruit both psychologically and linguistically.
Definitions of difficult vocabulary:
I believe that when students are exposed to written texts, they do not need to know all the vocabulary in order to understand the text as they can often guess the meaning from context, either at the sentence, paragraph, or overall text level. Therefore, I only included the essential vocabulary, the omission of which could potentially interfere with their understanding of the text, at the bottom of the page. I also added a brief definition of some flags, personalities, events, and concepts that may help the student more fully understand the text.
I hope that the book meets the needs of Arabic language learners and represents a real addition to the field of Arabic education.
Yehia A. Mohamed Doha, Summer 2020
Guidance Notes
Types of Question and Activities
Although the book consists of a diverse range
of questions, exercises, and activities, the
manner in which they are presented is consist-
ent throughout the book. A list of the different
types can be found below:
1 Pre-reading activities are used to intro-
duce the topic. These include class
discussions that focus students’ attention
on the subject matter and activities which .صوصنلا
encourage students to search for specific information that will help them to better understand the content of the text.
2 Reading comprehension activities include
recognition types such as true/false and
multiple choice, and these are typically
followed by open-ended production
questions.
3 Vocabulary enhancement question types
include identifying the odd one out,
matching synonyms and antonyms, filling
in the blanks, collocation activities, and
practice with idiomatic language.
4 Post-reading activities include further
reading recommendations, writing activi-
ties (primarily opinion-based essays), and
speaking activities, which include oral
presentations and group discussions.
5 The final section consists of pertinent lists
related to the theme of the unit. These
may include lists of prominent characters
and historic events and are followed by a
glossary.
How to use this book to improve your
language skills
1 Reading: On the first reading you should
skim the text to grasp its main idea. This
should be done without the use of a dic-
tionary and without writing translations on the text itself. On the second reading,
read in greater detail and take notes of
the main and supporting ideas. On the
final reading, students must first read the
questions and then skim and scan the text to locate the answers.
2 Listening: On the first listening, you
should listen to the entire extract for gist.
The second time, you should take notes
as you listen in order to have a fuller understanding of the listening script.
3
Writing: As the primary writing task is
opinion-based essays, it is essential that
you use evidence to support your argu-
ments/opinions. It is also important that
you make appropriate use of the language of argumentation as well as other func-
tional language as appropriate. Likewise,
you should consider your use of transi-
tional words and phrases to link ideas
within and between sentences, as well as between paragraphs. Accurate use of
syntax and grammar are expected, as is a
logical structure for the piece of writing.
4 Speaking: To be successful in this skill,
you need to prepare thoroughly outside
of class. This will involve collaborating
with colleagues for group discussions and
preparing independently for individual
presentations. It also involves rehearsing for the speaking activities before class.
