v-Arabic : Virtual Arabic
v-tivity : virtual activity
Realia: Real life authentic items
Virtual Realia
Digitized objects and items from the target culture which are brought into the classroom as examples or aids and used to stimulate spoken or written language production.
Language Realia
Realia is a term used in education to refer to certain real-life objects. In education, realia are objects from real life used in classroom instruction.
In education, realia include objects used by educators to help students to understand better other cultures and real life situations. A teacher of a foreign language often employs realia to strengthen students' associations between words for everyday objects and the objects themselves.
In foreign language instruction, the term realia has a broader meaning, which includes photos of objects from a country where the target language is spoken.
Wikipedia
Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign Poster Map in Arabic
Map, PALDIS for the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, March 21st, 2004
“A translation of our english campaign map, this new map created by the Palestine Land Development Information Systems (PALDIS) for PENGON/Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign shows the Wall’s latest path of devastation and ghettoization of the West Bank. Finalized in November 2003, with further updates in March 2004, this map reveals that if completed in its entirety, nearly 50% of the West Bank population will be affected by the Wall though the loss of their land, imprisonment into ghettos, isolation into de facto annexed areas by Israel.”
Recently, students of Edinburgh University were asked to vote for and support the Right to Education Campaign at Birzeit University in the Palestinian Territories.
The following is a collection of miscellaneous Realia items (with English translation) which reflect the topic of Human Rights in the Arab world.
These realia items were carefully selected to include a wide range of the most commonly used law and human rights vocabulary.
In the events and demonstrations banners/posters realia, they are particularly used in the context of increasing awareness about the situation of Human Rights concerns in the Arab world.
The realia types available in this post are:
Organisations logos
Book covers
News Video Report Realia
Events and demonstrations banners/posters
Links to relevant vocabulary learning resources are listed at the end of this post.
V-tivity
Translate the text/meaning of the following realia items:
Just recently, a political campaign took over most of the Lebanese billboards with the message (I love Life) and other messages in three languages : Arabic, English and French.
I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God
2x
حي على الصلاة
Hayya ‘alas-salāt
Make haste towards prayer
2x
حي على الفلاح
Hayya ‘alal-falāh
Make haste towards welfare [success]
2x
الله اكبر
Allah u akbar
God is greatest
1x
لا اله الا الله
Lā ilāha illallāh
There is no lord except God
Video clip of the Adhan
Watch this video clip of the Adhan from Makkah (this is one of the most-known Adhan among Muslims in the Muslim world)
Adhan from Tureky
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This video clip shows the transliteration and meaning of the Adhan
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Amzing facts about the Adhan
Wherever there are Muslims around the world, the Adhan is recited 5 times a day in the following times :
ِdawn الفجر
noon, الظهر
mid-afternoon, العصر
sunset, المغرب
night العشاء
So, if you happen to travel to the Arab world, you will defenitely hear the Adhan throughout the day.
One of the amazing facts that has been establised is that there is not even a single moment when hundreds of thousands of Muazzins (callers to prayer) around the world are not calling the Adhan on the surface of this earth. Even as you read this material right now, you can be sure there are at least thousands of people who are hearing and reciting the Adhan! Read more
This video illustrates the continuity of the Adhan around the earth
Poster of the Adhan & Iqama transcript
The Adhan at the Dawn prayer is slightly different from the other Adhan.
What line is added to the Adhan at dawn time? (Look at the red arrow above)
What happens when the Adhan is announced?
What do you understand from this TV advert?
Screenshot of an electronic Adhan software
The software allows you to hear automatic Athan at the right time five times a day. The most popular religious software according to download.com
Many Muslims (Arabs and non-Arabs) who live outside the Muslim world rely on electronic tools to remind them of the exact prayer times.
As a language learning exercise, compare the following screenshots:
Notice the prayer times, different types of Adhan, volume controls etc…
Minarets (manara (lighthouse) منارة, but more usually مئذنة) are distinctive architectural features of Islamic mosques. Minarets are generally tall spires with onion-shaped crowns, usually either free standing or much taller than any surrounding support structure.
As well as providing a visual cue demarcating a Muslim community center and territory, the call to prayer is traditionally given from the top of the minaret.
In some of the oldest mosques, such as the Great Mosque of Damascus, minarets originally served as watchtowers illuminated by torches (hence the derivation of the word from the Arabic nur, meaning “light”).
In more recent times, the main function of the minaret was to provide a vantage point from which the muezzin can call out the adhan, calling the faithful to prayer.
In most modern Mosques, the adhan is called not in the minaret, but in the musallah, or prayer hall, via a microphone and speaker system.
In a practical sense, these are also used for natural air conditioning.
As the sun heats the dome, air is drawn in through open windows and up and out of the shaft, thereby causing a natural ventilation.
Minarets have been described as the “gate from heaven and earth”, and as the Arabic language letter alif (which is a straight vertical line).
The world’s tallest minaret (at 210 meters) is located at the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco.
The world’s tallest brick minaret is Qutub Minar located in Delhi, India.
There are two 230 meter tall minarets under construction in Tehran, Iran.
To make sense of this (Exhibition Poster) realia , read the following invitation:
Camille Chamoun Day in AUB (American University of Beiru)
The Back To Roots club , in collaboration with the NLP students organisation is organizing an exhibition to commemorate the great Camille Chamoun, one of the most distinguised Christian, Lebanese and Arab leaders, founder of the National Liberal party,among the founders of the Lebanese Front and most of all one of the rare presidents who worked for Lebanon’s sake .
A conference entitled ” President Chamoun through his contemporates” will be presented by Dory Chamoun , head of the NLP party and son of President Chamoun … Mahmoud Ammar , Khalil Khalil and Ghassan Tueni will also be present to talk about their experience with Camille Chamoun .
More than 20 political and social figures will be attending this event. Exhibition will continue from Wednesday the 10th till 12th of December 2003 from 9am to 5pm
Minarets (manara (lighthouse) منارة, but more usually مئذنة) are distinctive architectural features of Islamic mosques. Minarets are generally tall spires with onion-shaped crowns, usually either free standing or much taller than any surrounding support structure.
