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General Information

Undergraduate Studies

Graduate Studies

Research

Continuing Education & Training Programs

Appendix: Personnel & Enrollment

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 Language Institutes

 

In addition to the degree programs and courses just described, the academic units of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences offer Arabic and English language programs. Two programs offered through the Arabic Language Institute provide intensive Arabic language instruction for non-Arabic speakers. The English Language Institute provides instruction for students who have been admitted into a degree program but who require further work to achieve the required level of English language proficiency. 

Arabic Language Institute

School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Professor: El S. Badawi (Director, Arabic Language Institute)

Associate Professor: A. El-Gibali

Arabic Language Teachers: M. K. Abdel Salam, N. Abdel Wahab, D. Abo El-Seoud, J. Allam, N. El Assiouti, R. El-Essawi, S. Ghanem, N. Harb, M. Hassan, Z. Ibrahim (Executive Director, Center for Arabic Study Abroad), S. Khalil,  S. Massoud,  M. S. Moussa, I. Saad, W. Samy (on leave), L. Al Sawi, Z. Taha, A. El-Tonsi, A. Wakid (Coordinator, Arabic Language Unit), N. Warraki (Director, Arabic  Language Unit), L. White

The Arabic Language Institute is responsible for Arabic language instruction within the university's academic structure. It includes the university's TAFL (Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language) M.A. program as well as regular nonintensive and accelerated courses in Arabic offered for academic credit.

The Arabic Language Institute also administers two programs of intensive  study of Arabic: the intensive Arabic and the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) programs.  These programs award program  (but not academic) credit toward a degree at AUC. Students, however, may be able to obtain credit toward an academic degree at their home institution for their Intensive Arabic Language (ALIN) coursework. They should, however, determine their institution's policy regarding transfer credit before coming to Cairo.

Intensive Arabic

The Arabic Language Institute offers intensive Arabic language courses for students, business people, diplomats, scholars, and others needing to gain a broad command of contemporary Arabic as quickly and as effectively as possible. For over sixty years, first through its School of Oriental Studies and then through its Center for Arabic Studies, AUC has taught Arabic to foreigners. Since the inception of what is now the Arabic Language Institute in the 1970s, this program has attracted students from the United States, Africa, Asia and Europe, offering intensive courses in both modern standard and Egyptian colloquial Arabic. A summer program is also offered.

Intensive Arabic Language courses (ALIN) are part of the Arabic Language Institute's program.  Students must register for a minimum of ten program credit hours per semester, while the normal course load is eighteen to twenty contact hours per week.  All courses are taken for grades, and program credit is awarded as  indicated at the end of each course listing. Students may receive up to nine undergraduate credits from AUC by petitioning the director of the program. (See "Non-degree Academic Regulations" for transfers of credit to other universities.)

Elementary Level

The course for beginners runs from the first week of September through May. The main emphasis is on modern standard Arabic, but Egyptian colloquial Arabic is simultaneously offered (about thirty percent of class time is devoted to colloquial).  Arabic is used as the main medium of instruction in the second half of the program. The course comprises up to twenty hours per week of classroom instruction, including language laboratory work, and up to twenty hours of home assignments.

A student who successfully completes the first year of intensive study with the Arabic Language Institute can expect to possess a working competence in reading and writing modern standard Arabic and understanding and speaking Egyptian colloquial or modern standard Arabic.

Intermediate Level

Courses at this level are designed for those who have completed a year of intensive study at the elementary level of the Arabic Language Institute or who have studied two or more years elsewhere and can demonstrate a similar level of competence. The program runs from the first week of September to the end of May in the following year.

Arabic is the chief medium of instruction. Students continue work in modern standard Arabic and Egyptian colloquial Arabic. Interested students may, at this level, begin to acquire familiarity with classical Arabic. Attention is given to the Arabic of print and broadcast media, while special lecture courses in Arabic are offered in response to the special interests of the students, such as Middle Eastern economics and politics, business correspondence, medieval and modern Arabic literature.

Students who complete this second year of study should be able to read and write modern standard Arabic with some fluency, to pursue study in topics that specially interest them in Arabic, and to converse freely in Arabic. Intermediate-level students will also have had an opportunity to acquire vocabulary and terminology related to such special fields of interest as business and diplomacy.

Advanced Level

Exceptional students may wish to take a third year. These courses are arranged according to demand, but they typically include advanced work in reading and writing and lecture courses in special topics. At the end of such a course a student should be able to compete with Arab students at the university level. Alternatively, the student should be able to employ Arabic with competence and confidence in the fields of business and/or diplomacy. (See Intensive Arabic Language course listing.)

Certificate and Program Requirements

Full-time students taking fifteen to twenty hours per week of class work who successfully complete at least eighteen program hours receive certificates of achievement from the Arabic Language Institute (specifying their level, i.e. elementary, intermediate or advanced).  (See the Intensive Arabic Language course listing and the number of program credits awarded for each course.)

Intensive Summer Program

Director: M. K. Abdel Salam

The Arabic Language Institute offers an intensive summer program from the first week of June until the beginning of August. Students must take twenty  hours of class per week to be considered full-time. The summer curriculum includes either Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (ECA) at all levels, or Modern Standard Arabic Only, both options as a full load.

In addition, a number of electives is also offered of which each student may take up to two.

A total of ten program credits may be earned in the summer towards the Arabic Language Institute certificate.

Extra Curricular Activities/Trips and Cultural Programs

An integral part of the intensive language program is an extensive series of tours of Cairo and trips to the easily visited sites of interest all over Egypt. These tours and trips are supplemented by a lecture series. While the institute subsidizes a large portion of the expenses, including transportation and entrance fees, students are required to pay for their food and lodging.

A series of weekly lectures covering the cultural, educational, economic aspects of life in Egypt is offered. The summer program also includes a cultural component featuring activities such as calligraphy, music, dance, and cooking, etc.

In addition, seasonal activities, such as Christmas and Ramadan parties, are organized with the active participation of the students. 

Center for Arabic Study Abroad

Director (U.S.A.): Mahmoud Al-Batal

Co-Director (Cairo): El S. Badawi

Executive Director: Z. Ibrahim

AUC's Arabic Language Institute also houses the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA), an intensive advanced Arabic program for American graduate and undergraduate students who have had at least two years of instruction in Arabic.  CASA is a consortium of twenty-one American universities, including AUC.  CASA is  funded mainly by the U.S. Department of Education but also receives major contributions from member institutions and interested corporations and foundations in addition to program fees paid by participants. Its objective is to raise the level and broaden the base of Arabic language competence in the American academic community.

AUC's Arabic Language Institute offers both a CASA summer program and a CASA twelve month program beginning in June. The summer program emphasizes the spoken Arabic of Cairo with some attention to modern standard Arabic. Students in the full-year program develop a facility in the use of the four major language skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. In addition to these programs, CASA provides a summer program for professors of humanities alternating with a program for teachers of Arabic as a Foreign Language.

Students are chosen to participate in the program on the basis of a competitive examination given every February in the United States. They must be American citizens or permanent residents, and be enrolled in a recognized institution of learning in the United States or Europe. During their CASA studies they are enrolled at AUC. AUC does not offer credit for intensive Arabic, but, based on certification from AUC, academic credit can normally be received from the student's home university.

Students enrolled in AUC's academic or intensive Arabic programs are  eligible to apply for CASA. The CASA examination is given in Cairo at AUC every February at the same time that it is given in the United States.

Applications and further information on fellowships can be obtained from: Director, Center for Arabic Study Abroad, Dept. of Near Eastern Studies, S 311 Callaway Center, 537 Kilgo Circle, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322 and from the CASA Web Page:  www.emory.edu/COLLEGE/CASA.

English Language Institute

School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Director, English Language Institute: Y. El-Ezabi

Intensive English Program Coordinator: T. Farkas

Intensive English Program Testing Specialist: B. Alfred

English 111 Coordinator: M. Hafez

English Language Teachers: N. Aboul Fetoh, M. Ateek, M. Badawi, M. Bishara, J. Cargile, C. Clark, V. De Cozar, A. Demian, S. Esnawi, S. Farag, H. Garas, F. Hassan, M. Ibrahim, M. Iskander, J. Isteero, R. Jabr, L. Kamal, F. Kassabgy, N. Kassas, N. Khafagi, S. Makhlouf, G. Marquis, A. Mishriki, L. Moussa, H. Nashed, L. Nessim, M. Osman, P. Pattie, M. El Saady, M. Sarofim, A.  Shalaby, A. Shebeenie, C. Sheikholeslami,  A. El Shimi, V. Stevens, N. El Taher, M. Witt, E. Yoder.

While the English Language Institute now offers masters and diploma programs in TEFL as described under "Fields of Study," the institute was originally founded in 1956 to offer intensive English language courses in its intensive English program to prepare non-native speakers of English for study at the undergraduate and graduate levels in the university.

Graduate Programs

Graduate students who are otherwise qualified to enter the university but whose English does not meet the necessary level of proficiency, based on the applicant's performance on the AUC English Language Proficiency Entrance Test (ELPET), or the equivalent on the TOEFL with TWE, will be admitted to English 100 or 101, or placed in the appropriate modules of English 102-105.

Graduate students in the intensive English 100 and 101 courses are allowed a maximum of two semesters and a summer (or three semesters if no summer session is offered) to reach the level of Academic English for Graduates (see below).

Intensive English for Graduates

The intensive program for graduate students offers English 100 (intermediate) and English 101 (advanced).  Students are placed in one of the two levels according to their scores on the AUC English Language Proficiency Test (ELPET) or the TOEFL with TWE.

Content of Courses

Students are placed in sections normally comprised of up to fifteen students. Students are given a grammar review, extensive reading and composition practice, advanced vocabulary review, and practice in listening comprehension. Grading in this course is on a Pass/Fail system.

Attendance

Attendance and participation are considered so important to this intensive language program that a student who for any reason misses the equivalent of more than 21 class hours in any one semester will be asked to withdraw. Students who withdraw from English 100 or 101 may not sit for the AUC ELPET until six months have elapsed from the date of their last examination. Applicants for readmission may not submit a TOEFL (plus TWE) score.  If their score is ELIN level, they will be allowed to return to English 100 or 101. Students who are asked to withdraw but fail to do so will be suspended.

Suspension and Readmission

Graduate students suspended from English 100 or 101 must petition for readmission and must meet all the admission requirements prevailing at the time of readmission. Readmission is not granted automatically.  Students suspended from English 100 or 101 who are readmitted to the university must score high enough on the AUC  ELPET for direct admission to Academic English for Graduates  or higher, as they will not be allowed to return to English 100 or 101.

Academic English for Graduates

 Academic English for graduate students consists of four non-credit modules covering library skills and research (ENGL 102), effective writing (ENGL 103), academic reading (ENGL 104), listening and speaking (ENGL 105).  These modules have been designed especially for graduate students (who may be taking other courses at the same time) so that they will be able to apply what they are learning in these modules to what they will be expected to do in other graduate courses. Grading in these modules is on a Pass/Fail system.

Each  module meets for one hour and a half per week. Students who have part-time or full-time jobs are strongly advised not to attempt other undergraduate or graduate courses until they have completed their academic English requirements. Students enrolled in any of the modules are expected to spend at least three hours per week outside of class in preparation for each weekly class meeting of each module in which they are enrolled (e.g., a student enrolled in four modules should expect to spend at least 12 hours per week outside class plus six hours per week in class).

Enrollment  in other courses for full-time graduate students depends on the number of modules which students must take, according to the formula below:

 

Required Academic English Modules

Students may take

Six hours (all  modules)

No other graduate or undergraduate courses

Four hours and a half (three modules)

One undergraduate course

Three hours (two modules)

One undergraduate or one graduate course

One hour and a half (one module)

Two undergraduate courses or one graduate and one undergraduate course

 

 

 

Any student who withdraws from a module must withdraw from any non-ENGL courses as well. Students who fail any module(s) may repeat the module(s) twice. Students who fail the same module three times will be disqualified but may apply for readmission.  Applicants for readmission may not submit a TOEFL (plus TWE) score.

Graduate students in Public Administration may substitute MGMT/PADM  503 for the ENGL 102 module. Graduate students in Engineering may substitute ENGR 590 for the ENGL 102 module.

 

 

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