Class Module

Discipline: Information Technology Program: BSIT

Course Code: AST – 301 Course Title: Foreign Language
Credits: 3 Units Duration: 54 Hours
Program Placement: 3rd Year/ 2nd Semester Prerequisite: None

This course is designed to provide students with the fundamental skills and knowledge in Arabic
as a foreign language. It aligns with the guidelines set by the Commission on Higher Education
(CHED) Memorandum Order No. 25, which emphasizes the development of communicative
competence in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Cultural understanding and appreciation
are integrated throughout the course.

At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:

1. Learn new vocabulary (English-Arabic).
2. Reading and Writing Basic Arabic Words, Sentences and Numbers
3. Develop listening and oral skills.
4. Expands their knowledge and understanding of the culture and history of the Arabic-speaking
world.
WEEK TOPICS
1,2 NORSU Preliminaries: NORSU VMGO, GS Goals, Program Objectives, Course
Competency
3,4 CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION to ARABIC LANGUAGE
Topic 1. Definition of Arabic
Topic 2. Brief History and Origin of Arabic Language
Topic 3. Classifications of Arabic Language
Topic 4. Impact of Arabic Language Globally
5,6 CHAPTER II. ALPHABET AND PRONUNCIATION
Topic 1. Learning Arabic Alphabet
Topic 2. English Alphabet to Arabic
Topic 3. Pronunciation
Topic 4. Short and Long Vowels
Topic 5. Diphthongs and Nunations
Topic 6. Doubled Consonant and Absence of Vowels
7,8 CHAPTER III. METHOD of WRITING ARABIC
Topic 1. Different Forms of Letters
9,10 CHAPTER IV. COUNTING NUMBERS IN ARABIC
Topic1. Reading and Writing Numbers
11-12 CHAPTER V. Basic Words in Arabic Language
Topic 1. Pronoun and Verb
Topic 2. The Parts of the Body
Topic 3. Food, Vegetables, Fruits, etc.
Topic 4. Places and Directions
Topic 5. Times, Week Days, Month and Year
13-14 CHAPTER VI. Learning Sentences English to Arabic
Topic 1. Sentences of One Word
Topic 2. Sentences of Two Words
Topic 3. Sentences of Three Words
Topic 4. Interrogative Sentences
Topic 5. Greetings
Topic 6. The Clock
15,16 CHAPTER VII. GRAMMAR
Topic 1. Adjective and the Nominal Sentences
Topic 2. The Demonstrative and Independent Pronouns
Topic 3. Gender and Number
Topic 4. Past Tense-Verbal Sentences
Topic 5. Past- Tense The Nominal Sentences
17,18 CHAPTER VIII. CONVERSATIONS : USEFUL SENTENCES WITH
Topic 1. The Friend, In The Market, In The Hotel
Topic 2. The Doctor, In The Book-Stall
Topic 3. I Want A Room
Topic 4. In The Textile Shop and In The Post Office
Topic 5. On Journey
Topic 6. Allah
 I. Introduction to Arabic Language

Language is complex and dynamic. It changes across space and time, from generation to
generation. New words are introduced and old words go out of use; words acquire new meanings
and change their old meanings; and grammatical norms that existed in the past may become
obsolete in the future. Language use is partly documented by texts which preserve traces of that
change including variations in spelling, prefixes or suffixes that appear or disappear across eras
and changes in word meanings. The Arabic language is no exception to this, but provides a
challenge for the historical linguist.

I. 1. Definition Of Arabic
Arabic is a language of the Arabs, spoken in a variety of dialects; the official language of
Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, the Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, Syria,
Tunisia, and Yemen.
This is a language spoken natively by approximately 315 million people around the world
today and by more people as a non-native language. It is difficult to know exactly how many
people speak Arabic because the language has many different dialects, just like English. Arabic
is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, along with Mandarin Chinese, English,
Spanish, Hindi, and French. The Arabic written language is notable for its flowing script and the
fact that it is written from right to left rather than left to right. Arabic has been an important
language in many parts of the world for centuries. As such, it is one of the six official languages
of the United Nations, alongside Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.
In Arabic, Arab means “inhabitant of the desert.” This refers to as a member of a Semitic
people originally from the Arabian peninsula and surrounding territories who speaks Arabic and
who inhabits much of the Middle East and Northern Africa.

I. 2. Brief History and Origin of Arabic Language

The Arabic language ranks fifth in the world’s league table of languages, with over 200
million native Arabic speakers worldwide. It is also one of the six languages of the United
Nations, the language of the Qur’an, and the official language of 22 countries. With so many
people speaking Arabic, it is interesting to learn about the history of the Arabic language and
discover how it became a prominent language in the modern world. The history of the Arabic
language started over 1,000 years ago when Classical Arabic first emerged. Classical Arabic
was the dialect of Mecca in what is now Saudi Arabia. As the language stems from the Afro-
Asiatic family, it is classified as a Semitic language. In fact, Arabic is the most widely spoken of
all Semitic languages worldwide. It features many Sematic traits, including nonconcatenative
morphology and the absence of vowels in the written script. The classical version of Arabic
evolved throughout the history of the Arabic language and spread across the North African and
Iberian regions. Many regional dialects emerged, which Arabic speakers use today for everyday
communications. Many of these are not mutually intelligible. Modern Standard Arabic was later
developed as a simplified version of the language used in books, newspapers, television, schools,
and official documentation today. With so many Arabic speakers worldwide, many people are
learning Arabic as a second language. But writing and speaking Arabic is incredibly challenging
for non-native Arabic speakers. The Arabic language has 28 consonants and three vowels which
can either be short or long. Many of these sounds don’t exist in other languages! The omittance
of vowels makes speaking Arabic even more complex, and Arabic translations must be left to
professional translators.
Arabic Language Origin
The history of the Arabic language can be traced back to the Arabian Peninsula over 1,000
years ago. Very early indications of the language date back to the 8th century B.C.E. However,
Arabic went through significant development throughout the 3rd to 6th centuries C.E.
Throughout these years, characters were added to the script and words to the vocabulary.

Arabic started to spread, mainly because of the nomadic tendencies of the people
speaking Arabic who lived in the region. Interracial marriages between people of the Arabian
Peninsula and the surrounding areas expedited the process considerably. The Arabic language
spread significantly during the Islamic conquests of the 7th century C.E., entering Iberian,
Chinese, and North African regions.

It soon became the language of choice for many people, and there were more Arabic
speakers than ever. The language was particularly prevalent among the Egyptian population,
where Coptic and Greek were the major languages. As the Arabic language spread, different
dialects and styles of the language formed. These varieties exist today, despite Arabic being
classified as a single language.

Modern "Arabic Language"

The early 19th century marked the starting point of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA).
Contacts between Arabic-speaking nations and the Western world increased, the first newspaper
written in the Arabic language was printed, and Arabic-only schools were established to push
back against a cultural shift towards Turkification. These all helped define a standardised version
of the language.

MSA is simpler and more refined than classical Arabic. It is the version of the language
taught in schools today and used for all printed materials in the Arab League. It is also the
standard of the language which has official status in many countries worldwide – including the
UAE, Yemen, Qatar, Somalia, Libya, Morocco, Egypt, and Iraq – and the version used in all
official documentation.

Nevertheless, the dialects that emerged throughout the history of the Arabic language are still
in use today. Arabic speakers communicate in several unique styles, known as “Colloquial
Arabic.” Today, Arabic enjoys the status of a macro language with 30 varieties, including MSA.
With so many language varieties, translating English to Arabic can prove challenging.

I. 3. Classifications of Arabic Language

Semitic languages were confined in a relatively small geographic area (Greater

Syria, Mesopotamia and the Arabian desert) and often spoken in contiguous regions. Permanent
contacts between the speakers of these languages facilitated borrowing between them. Borrowing
disrupts historical processes of change and makes it difficult to reconstruct the genealogy of
languages. In the traditional classification of the Semitic languages, Arabic was in the Southwest
Semitic group, based on some affinities with Modern South Arabian and Geʽez.

(Semitic language-Semitic people or Semites is an obsolete term for an ethnic,

cultural or racial group associated with people of the Middle East,
including Arabs, Jews, Akkadians, and Phoenicians. )

The Arabic language is usually classified as a Central Semitic language. The Arabic language
family is divided into several categories. Arab dialectologists have adopted a more detailed
classification for modern variants of the language, which is divided into major groups:

 Peninsular - to describe a near-island that is connected to the mainland.

 Mesopotamian - is known in a present day Iraq.
 Levantine - The Levant is a term in geography that refers to an area in the Middle East. It
includes the historic areas of Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, and Syria.
 Egyptian
 Sudanese

1. 4. Impact of Arabic Language Globally

The Arabic language and its cultural significance extend far beyond the borders of the
Arab world. Arabic is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, highlighting its
global importance in diplomacy, international relations, and cross-cultural communication.
 Arabic is an important language for several reasons. It is the fourth most spoken language
in the world, with 315 million people in 58 countries speaking it as their first language .
Learning Arabic can offer several benefits, such as:

 Cultural enrichment: Learning Arabic will enable you to read some of the famous classic
literature, such as The One Thousand and One Nights or the poems of Ḥāfeẓ and Ahmad Shawqi
in their original versions.
 Career opportunities: Arabic is instrumental to gaining a real understanding of the peoples,
societies, and politics of the Arab world, and accessing a range of employment opportunities in
the region’s finance, media, and commercial sectors.
 Access to knowledge: Arabic is an incubator of culture, science, and knowledge.
 Personal growth: Learning a new language can be a challenging but rewarding experience that
can help you develop new cognitive skills and improve your memory

Chapter Questions:

Which country speaks the original Arabic? There are no countries that still speak the
Classical Arabic that is written in the Qu'ran, although many people can still read and understand
this form of Arabic. Instead, many countries have their own dialects that have evolved over time.

When was the Arabic language created? Languages are not typically created; they evolve
naturally over time. Proto-Arabic was spoken as early as the 2nd century BCE and gradually
evolved into the language that is spoken today.

What language did Arabic come from?Arabic evolved from Proto-Arabic, which historical
linguists have reconstructed to some extent. Even further back, Proto-Arabic evolved from Proto-
Afro-Asiatic, the language that originated the contemporary Afro-Asiatic language family.

What languages make up Arabic? There are many dialects of Arabic, including Sudanese,
Egyptian Arabic, and Yemeni Arabic. Whether these dialects constitute separate languages or
whether they are dialects of a single language is a complex and highly political issue.

How did the Arabic language develop? Arabic is a Semitic language that developed over time
from Proto-Arabic. Originally, it was primarily spoken by nomadic groups before the spread of
Islam made it much more popular in many parts of the world.
 II. ALPHABET AND PRONUNCIATION

II.1. Arabic Alphabet and English Alphabet

The Arabic alphabet contains 28 letters, all of which represent consonants. Three letters
can also represent long vowels in certain contexts. Short vowels are not part of the alphabet. The
letters are written from right to left. There are no distinct upper and lower case letter
forms. Many letters look similar but are distinguished from one another by dots above or below
their central part. The dots are an integral part of a letter, since they distinguish between letters
that represent different sounds.
II.2. ENGLISH ALPHABET TO ARABIC
II.3. Pronunciation