Modern Arabic the Arab - European Encounter

عن الكتاب

Modern Arabic: The Arab-European Encounter aims at suggestion a strategy for the selction of texts to teach culture withinan advanced Arabic language course. The strategy is based on theoretical premises concerning the problem of intercultural communication in the light of the current debate among anthropologists and enthnographers on the ... "representation" of the "Other". In the case of Arabic, within a tradition of "problematic communication" between East and West, it appears imperative that teachers and students develop a critical consciousness of their own role within a discourse fraught with assumptions that are often unstated and part of a "popular" unreflected "knowledge". The book uses both authentic historical texts and simulated language situations. It argues that the learning of Arabic should aim at involving students in a cross cultural encounter, following an intergrated course of communicative, literary and analysis. The study of historical documents set in a simulated, present-day context may thus become part of a learning process of contemporary students whose reading of a past text will lead to a critical reflection of their own experiences of encountering Arabic language and civilization.