Spring 2027

First Semester Arabic

First Semester Arabic for beginning learners of Modern Standard Arabic, emphasizing proficiency through speaking, listening, reading, and writing in cultural context.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 7

Past student reviews · Jibril Gabid, Rima Hammo

The course requires significant effort, including daily homework that some students found challenging to stay on top of. Grading for this homework was based on accuracy rather than just completion.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Communicate about familiar topics in Arabic using memorized and practiced phrases and sentences.

  • Present information about themselves and some other very familiar topics.

  • Use a variety of practiced and memorized words, phrases, simple sentences, and questions in both written and spoken Arabic.

  • Identify products and practices in their own cultures and in Arabic culture.

  • Recognize a few memorized words and phrases when spoken.

  • Perform interactional functions at the novice sub-levels (mid to high) in some familiar everyday contexts.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
AFRICAN 321 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ANGELINE KASIA PETERSON is recorded teaching in Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JIBRIL GABID is recorded teaching in Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

RIMA HAMMO is recorded teaching in Fall 2024. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SALAH ALGABLI is recorded teaching in Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

SAMI LAMINE is recorded teaching in Fall 2013, Fall 2014. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Salah Algabli, Rima Hammo

Students described the class as a relaxed and fun environment dedicated to learning Arabic and experiencing its culture. Instructors like Salah and Rima were noted for making the language enjoyable to learn.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 3.04 GPA, 66.7% A/AB (n=27 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.62 GPA, 81.1% A/AB (n=37 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.73 GPA, 91.9% A/AB (n=37 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Jibril Gabid, Rima Hammo

The course requires significant effort, including daily homework that some students found challenging to stay on top of. Grading for this homework was based on accuracy rather than just completion.

Past student reviews · Jibril Gabid

Jibril was supportive when students made mistakes and provided good feedback. He was described as lenient and always open to answering questions, though he sometimes struggled to understand specific inquiries.

Topics

  • Modern Standard Arabic
  • Communication in cultural context
  • Arabic culture and cross-cultural identification

Skills

  • Speaking, listening, reading, and writing in Modern Standard Arabic
  • Communicating about familiar topics using memorized and practiced phrases
  • Performing interactional functions at novice sub-levels in everyday contexts

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1316 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "68bb3f0b9c4263b6e1bad0a1c55d0e98d697770118f676e3deb3f630f16c8ba6",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}