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A-Level Arabic in England is a Pearson Edexcel qualification, specification 9AA0, Issue 1, April 2018, first assessed in May/June 2020. Its full title is Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Arabic (listening, reading and writing), and that parenthesis is the single most important structural fact about the course: there is no speaking paper. Speaking is named in the qualification's aims — students should be encouraged to develop it during the course of study — but it is not assessed, and every mark in the qualification is earned by listening, reading, translating and writing. This is a different qualification from the Edexcel languages that do have a speaking paper, and it is a different qualification again from the AQA modern-language A-Levels, so the folklore attached to either is unreliable here. There are three externally examined papers, all taken in the same May/June series. Paper 1, Translation into English, reading comprehension and writing (research question) in Arabic, runs for two hours thirty minutes, carries 80 marks and is worth 40 per cent of the qualification: Section A is an unseen translation from Arabic into English for 20 marks, Section B is reading for 20 marks over four questions, and Section C is the research question for 40 marks, in which the student reads an unseen Arabic text and responds to a statement about their own researched subject in roughly 270 to 320 words of Arabic. Paper 2, Translation into Arabic and written response to works, runs for two hours forty minutes, carries 110 marks and is worth 30 per cent: Section A is an unseen translation from English into Arabic for 20 marks, and Sections B and C carry two extended essays of 45 marks each, either two on literary texts or one on a literary text and one on a film. Paper 3, Listening, reading and writing in Arabic, runs for two hours fifteen minutes, carries 60 marks and is worth 30 per cent: Section A is listening comprehension for 30 marks, with individual control of the recording, and Section B is a 30-mark question in which the student summarises one heard source and one read source on the same sub-theme and then evaluates the views in both. The content is four themes, each broken into two sub-themes and a research subject, and each of those divided into aspects; the specification prints all of them in Arabic. Theme 1, al-mahwar al-awwal, covers changes in Arab society through the Arab family and the media; Theme 2 covers artistic culture through music and through Arab art and the arabesque; Theme 3 covers work and citizenship through life and work and through responsibility towards the environment; Theme 4 covers political culture through Arab identity and through political conditions in the twenty-first century. Themes 1 and 3 are the society themes, Theme 2 the artistic-culture theme and Theme 4 the political-culture theme, and all four are set in the context of the Arabic-speaking world as a whole. The independent research is examined inside Paper 1 Section C: the student chooses exactly one of the four research subjects, bases it on exactly one country where Arabic is an official language, covers all three of that subject's aspects, and sits the examination with no dictionary and no research notes. Alongside the themes sit a prescribed grammar list in Appendix 2 — the case system, the vocalisation system, the idafa, verb forms I to X, the passive in all tenses and forms, roots and word patterns — and two declared works taken from the board's list of three literary texts and three films. Assessment objectives are weighted 20 per cent AO1, 30 per cent AO2, 30 per cent AO3 and 20 per cent AO4, and no dictionary is permitted in any paper. One further rule is easy to miss and worth knowing from the first week: vocalisation is used in the question papers only where it is needed for ease of reading or to clarify meaning, students are not expected to vocalise their own writing, and misuse of vocalisation is not penalised.

0/60 Texts12 Chapters~436 min total

Continue reading — Chapter I Table of contents

Pearson Edexcel 9AA0 Theme 1 - الأسرة العربية: أدوار الجنسين ضمن الأسرةDfE GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languagesPearson Edexcel 9AA0 Theme 1 - الأسرة العربية: دور الأسرة الممتدة والأقرباءPearson Edexcel 9AA0 Theme 1 - الأسرة العربية: الموقف من الزواج والطلاقPearson Edexcel 9AA0 Paper 2 Section A - translation into ArabicPearson Edexcel 9AA0 Theme 1 - الإعلام: تأثير الإعلام على المجتمع العربي؛ التكنولوجيا ووسائل الإعلام؛ تأثير وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي على المجتمع والعلاقات+85 moreStandardAdvanced

Table of contents · 12 ChaptersT·12

Ch. IChanges in Arab society: the family and the media (المحور الأول)5 texts · 0 read

Ch. IIWork, citizenship and the environment (المحور الثالث)5 texts · 0 read

Ch. IIIMusic and celebration in the Arab world (المحور الثاني، الموسيقى)5 texts · 0 read

Ch. IVArab art, the arabesque and calligraphy (المحور الثاني، الأرابيسك)5 texts · 0 read

Ch. VArab identity: nationalism, independence and العروبة (المحور الرابع)5 texts · 0 read

Ch. VIPolitical conditions in the twenty-first century (المحور الرابع، الأحوال السياسية)5 texts · 0 read

Ch. VIIGrammar and the two translations (الإعراب والترجمة)5 texts · 0 read

Ch. VIIIListening: Paper 3 and the varieties of Arabic (الاستماع)5 texts · 0 read

Ch. IXReading: Paper 1 Section B and the texts you will meet (القراءة)5 texts · 0 read

Ch. XThe literary text: Paper 2 Section B (النص الأدبي)5 texts · 0 read

Ch. XIThe prescribed film: Paper 2 Section C (الفيلم)5 texts · 0 read

Ch. XIIThe independent research: Paper 1 Section C (البحث المستقل)5 texts · 0 read

Instrument · 01Recommended study order

Instrument · 02Exam structure

Paper 1 - Translation into English, reading comprehension and writing (research question) in Arabic (9AA0/01): Written examination of 2 hours 30 minutes, 80 marks, 40 per cent of the A-Level - the largest single component. Three compulsory sections. Section A, translation into English, 20 marks with a recommended 20 minutes: one unseen Arabic passage rendered into English, its content drawn from any one of the eight sub-themes, marked by a points-based scheme in which one mark is given for each correct individual section of language. Section B, reading, 20 marks with a recommended 45 minutes: four questions, a mixture of multiple-choice and open-response, on texts that are authentic or adapted from authentic sources and that mix factual with abstract content - contemporary, historical, literary, fiction and non-fiction, written for different purposes and audiences, drawn across all the sub-themes. Section C, writing (the research question), 40 marks with a recommended 1 hour 25 minutes: the student reads one unseen Arabic text on their chosen research subject and responds to a statement about it, using information from the text together with their own research findings, in a recommended 270 to 320 words. Section C is marked by three levels-based grids applied to the one answer: knowledge and understanding of society and culture through research (AO4) out of 20, understand and respond in writing to written language (AO2) out of 10, and accuracy and range of language (AO3) out of 10. Because the unseen text is written to be equally relevant to any Arabic-speaking country, the country-specific substance can only come from the student's own research. All questions in Sections B and C are set in Arabic and must be answered in Arabic. No dictionary, and no documentation relating to the research, may be taken into the examination room. This paper assesses synopticity. Its assessment-objective share is 25 per cent AO2, 10 per cent AO4 and 5 per cent AO3, so it carries five sixths of the qualification's reading marks and half of its cultural-knowledge marks.
Paper 2 - Translation into Arabic and written response to works (9AA0/02): Written examination of 2 hours 40 minutes, 110 marks, 30 per cent of the A-Level. Section A, translation into Arabic, 20 marks with a recommended 30 minutes: one unseen English passage rendered into Arabic, its content drawn from any one of the eight sub-themes. Sections B and C, written response to works, 90 marks across a recommended 2 hours 10 minutes: two extended essays of 45 marks each. Section B holds the literary texts and Section C the films. A student may answer on two literary texts, in which case they answer twice in Section B and do not enter Section C; or on one literary text and one film, in which case they answer once in each. Answering on two films is not permitted. There is a choice of two questions on each work. Each essay is marked out of 45 by three separate levels-based grids applied to it individually: critical and analytical response (AO4) out of 20, range of grammatical structures and vocabulary (AO3) out of 15, and accuracy of language (AO3) out of 10. Pearson advises approximately 270 to 320 words per essay as a guide to the depth of analysis expected, but the whole essay is marked regardless of length. Responses are expected to address features such as form and technique of presentation, key themes, concepts and issues, characterisation, the structure of the plot, and the social and cultural setting, and to justify every point of view with evidence from the work itself. No credit is given for an essay on a literary text whose evidence comes from a film adaptation of that text. All questions are set in Arabic and must be answered in Arabic. No dictionaries, and no documentation relating to the works, may be taken into the examination room.
Paper 3 - Listening, reading and writing in Arabic (9AA0/03): Written examination of 2 hours 15 minutes, 60 marks, 30 per cent of the A-Level. This is the paper that replaces the speaking test that this qualification does not have, and it is the only place where listening is assessed. Two compulsory sections. Section A, listening comprehension, 30 marks with a recommended 45 minutes: four questions, multiple-choice and open-response, including questions that test summary skills, on a recording featuring male and female Arabic speakers using standard spoken Arabic at a speed appropriate to the level, with material drawn across all the sub-themes. Recordings reach centres as a CD or as MP3 files through Pearson's secure download service, and each student has individual control of the playback: they may stop, revisit and replay sections of the recording as they wish. Section B, the listening, reading and writing question, 30 marks with a recommended 1 hour 30 minutes: the student listens to a recording and reads a written text, both on the same sub-theme, summarises the different points of view in each source, and then writes an evaluation of those viewpoints, saying which they agree with and why, in a recommended 180 to 230 words. Questions 5(a) and 5(b), the two summaries, are points-based and carry the remaining eight marks; question 5(c), the evaluation, is marked by three levels-based grids - understand and respond to spoken language (AO1) out of 6, understand and respond to written language (AO2) out of 6, and accuracy and range of language (AO3) out of 10. All questions in both sections are set in Arabic and must be answered in Arabic. No dictionary. This paper assesses synopticity, and it carries the whole of the qualification's AO1 weighting.
The four themes, the research subjects, the works, the grammar list and the rules that catch people out: The content is four themes, each broken into two sub-themes and one research subject, and each of those divided into three aspects. All four are set in the context of the Arabic-speaking world; Themes 1 and 3 cover society past and present, Theme 2 artistic culture and Theme 4 political culture. Theme 1, changes in Arab society, holds the Arab family (gender roles within the family; the role of the extended family and relatives; attitudes to marriage and divorce) and the media (the effect of the media on Arab society; technology and the media; the effect of social media on society and relationships), with the research subject social norms in one Arab country (their origins; their importance to Arab society; the effect of modern life on them). Theme 2, artistic culture in the Arab world, holds music (kinds of traditional music and song; popular and musical culture; the role of music and song) and the arabesque as an Arab art (artistic and craft skills passed from one generation to the next; changes in architecture; Arabic calligraphy), with the research subject celebrations and occasions in one Arab country (existing traditional celebrations; their modernisation; tourism, festivals and occasions). Theme 3, work and citizenship in the Arab world, holds life and work (social mobility; attitudes to equality of opportunity at work; unemployment) and responsibility towards the environment (general attitudes to pollution and recycling; the government position on alternative energy; environmentally friendly groups and organisations), with the research subject tourism in one Arab country (its effect on the tourist economy; the costs and benefits for local people; its effect on national heritage and infrastructure). Theme 4, political culture in the Arab world, holds Arab identity (nationalism and the twentieth-century independence movements; the political philosophy and beliefs of Arabism; how far Arabism extends today) and political conditions in the twenty-first century (political systems in the Arab world; changes to those systems; attitudes to elections and freedom of choice), with the research subject ethnic minorities in one Arab country (the historical context; how far minorities are integrated into society; how far they enjoy equality). Independent research means research carried out without the help or instruction of others, including teachers: teachers may teach research skills and comment on availability of sources, but must not teach the content of the research subjects or supply sources. The student must gather evidence independently from at least two authentic sources in Arabic, must base the research on one Arabic-speaking country only, must cover all three aspects, and must not touch either of the works studied for Paper 2. The specification instructs teachers to weigh cultural sensitivities when guiding a student's choice, and to make sure enough material exists for the country chosen. The two works are taken from Appendix 1, which lists three literary texts - ʿUsfur min al-sharq by Tawfiq al-Hakim, a novel of 1938; Saʾid al-yaraqat by Amir Tag Elsir, a novel of 2010; and the verse play al-Bakhila by Ahmed Shawqi - and three feature films: Yawm murr wa-yawm hulw directed by Khairy Beshara, Ishaʿat hubb directed by Fatin Abdel Wahab, and Wadjda directed by Haifaa al-Mansour. Prescribed lists are set by the board and revised between issues, so every candidate must confirm the list current for their own series. Appendix 2 prescribes the grammar: the case system, the vocalisation system, nouns including dual and broken plurals, diptotes and the idafa, pronouns and relatives, nominal sentences with kana and inna and their sisters, adjectives and the nisba, adverbs including the cognate accusative, tamyiz and hal, verb forms I to X across sound, weak, hollow, defective, assimilated, doubled and hamzated roots, the full tense system, the passive in all tenses and forms, verbal sentences and word order, prepositions, conjunctions, particles, numerals and their agreement, the international, Levantine and Islamic calendars, and roots and word patterns. Assessment objectives: AO1, understand and respond in writing to spoken language, 20 per cent; AO2, understand and respond in writing to written language, 30 per cent; AO3, manipulate the language accurately in written forms using a range of lexis and structure, 30 per cent; AO4, show knowledge and understanding of, and respond critically and analytically to, the culture and society of the countries where Arabic is spoken, 20 per cent. The qualification is linear, taken entirely at the end of the course, and no dictionary is permitted anywhere.

Instrument · 03Official sources