Online Arabic courses for university, from degree start to fieldwork

University study with Arabic follows one of two routes. On the first route you study Arabic as a subject, such as Arabic studies, Middle Eastern studies, Islamic studies or translation, at a university in your own country or abroad. On the second route you study in an Arabic-speaking country, for an exchange semester or for a full degree.

Both routes require Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), the shared written language of all Arab countries. Academic literature, lectures in Arabic, exams and essays use it. The spoken dialects, the everyday varieties of each region, matter mainly for daily life in the host country.

The levels come from the CEFR, the Common European Framework of Reference with six levels from A1 to C2.

An Arabic studies degree can start without any Arabic. One example is the two-subject bachelor in Islamic studies and Arabic at the University of Münster in Germany. According to the institute, no Arabic is required, and the language course starts from zero in the first semester.

The language training covers Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, the language of the Quran and early literature, and each course ends with an exam. The institute also states that students must be able to read academic literature in English. The programme is taught in German, so international applicants need German at DSH-2 or DSH-3 level, the German university entrance exam.

A degree that starts from zero moves fast. If you learn the alphabet and the vowel marks with an online course before term starts, you gain time in the first weeks for grammar and vocabulary. Vowel marks are the small signs over and under the letters that show short vowels.

For study in Arabic there is no central admission test like the TOEFL for English. Each university decides how applicants prove their Arabic. The main international certificate is CIMA from the Institut du monde arabe in Paris. It tests MSA and places the result on a CEFR level from A1 to C2.

Ask your chosen university early whether it accepts CIMA or requires its own placement test. Check the language of instruction too, because some programmes in Arab countries are taught in English or French. For an exchange semester, the partner university usually decides whether you take subject classes in Arabic or a language course.

In daily life in the host country, people speak a dialect. In Jordan and Lebanon that is Levantine Arabic, in Egypt Egyptian Arabic and in Morocco Darija.

Academic texts in Arabic use MSA only. Four features set them apart from textbook texts at levels A1 to B1.

IJMES transliteration is the system of the International Journal of Middle East Studies. It renders each Arabic letter with a Latin character, often with dots or lines, and many departments in English-speaking countries use it. Learn it early, because reading lists and essays assume it.

When you cite Arabic sources, some books show two years. Next to the Gregorian year they give the year of the Islamic calendar, which counts from the Prophet Muhammad's emigration to Medina.

How much preparation you need depends on your route. The Foreign Service Institute (FSI), the language school of the US Department of State, expects about 2,200 class hours for Arabic to reach professional level. A degree taught in Arabic therefore needs several years of lead time.

1. Before an Arabic studies degree: Learn the alphabet, the vowel marks and the new sounds with an online course over a few weeks.
2. Before an exchange semester: Reach about B1 in MSA and learn the basics of your host country's dialect.
3. Before a degree taught in Arabic: Work with academic texts without vowel marks and write short essays until you reach the level the university requires.

B1 is the third of six CEFR levels. At B1 you follow short news items and talk about your experiences.

Heritage speakers, people who learned Arabic at home, often speak a dialect fluently but write with less confidence. They need a course that covers reading, writing and MSA vocabulary instead of starting at A1.