ARABIC-101

ELEMENTARY ARABIC

Offered Fall 2026

AMES · Taught by Houssami, Maha · Last offered Fall 2025

Overview

Feedback is mostly positive. The strongest signal is that students say they actually learn something useful. Best for students who want substance, not a disposable elective.

DepartmentAMES

Terms offeredFall, Spring

Typical enrollment7–19

Semesters of data4

3.9

Hrs / week

Responses

Enrollment

77%

Response Rate

Evaluation Scores

Overall quality

Teaching, content, and experience combined.

4.7

12345

Intellectually stimulating

Challenges students to think deeply.

4.5

12345

Instructor effectiveness

Explains concepts and facilitates learning.

4.9

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Difficulty

Higher means harder.

3.2

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Feedback Analysis

Feedback Analysishigh

Analysis based on student evaluations

Based on 237 comments across 7 sections

Feedback is mostly positive. The strongest signal is that students say they actually learn something useful. Best for students who want substance, not a disposable elective.

Student Reports

How hard is the A?

A is doable but not automatic

The signal here is more do-the-work-and-you-should-be-fine than easy-A chatter. Students do not describe the A as automatic, but the evidence also does not paint grading as punishing.

Homework Load

Heavy homework load

Homework load is one of the clearest friction points. Students repeatedly describe assignments, readings, or problem sets as time-consuming.

Lecture Load

Regular lecture load

Lectures matter here, but the evidence points to a fairly standard lecture burden rather than a course dominated by long or exceptionally dense lectures.

Strengths

• Students repeatedly say the course teaches something concrete, whether that is content mastery, research skill, or a strong foundation.

Tradeoffs

• There is no single dominant complaint theme, but the feedback is not uniformly glowing either.

Best fit for

Best for students who want substance, not a disposable elective.

Student Responses

Although I am a native Arabic speaker, this class still filled in many gaps that I had in Arabic grammar. I got to review how all the letters are written in their forms and in different styles. I learned about Arabic grammar concepts like noun sentences, verb sentences, pronoun endings, etc. and I also learned to keep myself humble about what I do not know and do know, since I thought I knew way more about the Arabic language than I actually did.