First-Year Urdu, First Quarter

First Year Urdu will introduce students to the Urdu alphabet (Nastaliq script); to pronunciation and intonation; to basic conversation patterns; and to the elements of spelling, reading, and writing in Urdu. It will cover basic grammar of modern standard Urdu. As part of this course, students will learn popular Urdu songs, watch films and video clips, and become familiar with culture of Urdu speaking people. They will also have exciting opportunities to make their own audio and video recordings to improve their pronunciation, work with Web-based and multi-media materials, and to go on one or more field trips. By the end of year, students will have acquired a basic vocabulary of 800-1000 words, and will be able to generate and interpret several types of simple sentences in simple conversation as well as write in a variety of communication contexts