CAASIC Short-Term Programs
CAASIC Summer (8 credit hours)
- 7 weeks/twenty contact hours per week instruction through content about Cairo
- Students are divided into small, linguistically homogeneous groups. Egyptian Colloquial Arabic (ECA) classes revolving around Cairo continue to rely on the Umm Al-Duya textbook أم الدنيا printed by AUC Press in 2012 specifically for students who have a higher level of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). This is in addition to movies, television, magazines, and wide-ranging class discussions, to build on the students' knowledge of ECA through comparisons and contrasts with the MSA they already know.
- The Summer MSA integrated skills course focuses on Cairo. The City of a Thousand And One Faces" is the name of the experiential learning course that exposes the learners to readings of different printed and multimedia text types including but not limited to: memoirs, short stories, opinion articles, documentaries, pictures, reports and listening (audio and video) materials that revolve around Cairo. Field trips that support the readings and listening materials are intertwined in coursework. Students read about and visit downtown coffee shops, bars, mosques, churches and synagogues, where the events of the readings took place and learn onsite about the history, architecture and culture through engaging in meaningful discussions with an expert guide and/or their professor.
CAASIC Fall only (12 credit hours) or Fall and Spring (24 credit hours)
- The fall semester (September - December) focuses on the culture of Egypt and the whole Middle East, giving special attention to equally developing and enhancing all language skills. Learners study in classes (20 contact hours per week) that present social, cultural, literature, and political issues from different perspectives enhanced by a weekly lecture series where they engage in intellectual discussions that critique aspects of different issues with renowned Arab authors and prominent leaders in their fields . The lecture series works on enhancing critical thinking and language skills like, summarizing, paraphrasing, reflection, and note taking through pre, during and post-lecture assignments and tasks. It is an enriching learning opportunity to interact exclusively in Arabic with a number of Egyptian and Arab intellectuals in Cairo. These guest speakers provide first-hand experience providing a historical overview and personal experiences on a variety of topics and/or interesting insights into the current political, intellectual, and artistic scene in Egypt. By the end of the fall, learners are linguistically and culturally competent to learn more discipline-specific content courses in the spring semester that are directly related to their own areas of interest and specialization from content specialists each in their own field.
- In the spring, students enroll in four content courses of their choice, 3 contact hours each. By the end of the spring semester, the fellows have acquired sufficient Arabic to enable them to participate meaningfully in personal and professional interactions using the appropriate Arabic language variety.
- All students sit for an exit exam which is similar to their entrance exam to measure their progress throughout the year.
- Students cannot enroll in the spring semester only, but they can combine a fall and spring, or summer and fall semesters, or summer alone or fall alone.
Students cannot apply to CAASIC spring without completing CAASIC fall. The CAASIC summer and CAASIC fall or CAASIC fall and spring offer the same CASA@AUC content that follows a theme-based, content-based instruction curriculum that makes use of a number of authentic materials, integrated skills activities, and real-world tasks and is augmented with rich and specialized culture programs. All materials are developed by experienced instructors to specifically meet the needs of advanced learners of Arabic.
All CAASIC students will be required to abide by an Arabic-only speaking policy on campus and off-campus as much as possible.
CAASIC-Fulbright Short-Term Program
US citizens who are studying Arabic at the advanced level and wish to apply for Fulbright funding to join CAASIC fall 2025 and spring 2026 can start applying to the program.
For more details about the program and the application process, click here.
Who may apply to CAASIC Summer, CAASIC Fall only or CAASIC Fall and Spring?
- Advanced learners with at least three years of previous Arabic language study, capable of passing the highly competitive and selective admission process and sustaining a full year of intensive dedicated commitment to studying Arabic.
- Students who are already enrolled or who seek to enroll in post-graduate programs that require advanced/superior Arabic language proficiency.
- Graduates and senior undergraduates (who by the start of the program will be graduates), interested in advanced Arabic language study.
- Professionals who wish to enhance their Arabic language skills to widen their scope of service and/or professional careers.
- Learners who are serious, research-oriented individuals, with an advanced Arabic background.
Program Details
Eligibility, Application and Selection Process
Apply Now to Advanced Arabic Language and Culture Immersion Program CASA@AUC