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 non-intensive and accelerated courses in Arabic offered for academic credit.

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

The Arabic Language Institute offers an intensive summer program from the first week of June until the last week of July. 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 out 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/Student Cultural Activity Program

An integral part of the intensive language program, both full year & summer, 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.

The Arabic Language Institute cultural program also includes a cultural component featuring activities such as calligraphy, music and folkloric dance.

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

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-three American universities, including AUC.  CASA receives funding from the U.S. Department of Education, The Mellon, Ford and Starr Foundations with support from the Binational Fulbright Committee in Egypt, 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  program  in Arabic for professors in the humanities & social sciences called CASA III.

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.