Program Description NOVA STARTALK is a summer institute in its third year designed to help teachers integrate technology tools and 21st century language pedagogy in the Arabic and Chinese curricula. Arabic and Chinese teachers in each language will create a collection of activities to expand the curriculum presently in place. The networking that has resulted from this course in the two past years has enriched instruction and created a bond between teachers who have worked in teams in and out of our STARTALK setting.
Arabic orthography is a cursive system, running from right to left. Only consonants and long vowels are written. There is no upper and lower case distinction, nor can the isolated forms of letters normally be juxtaposed to form words.
The Art of Arabic Calligraphy
Arabic belongs to the group of Semitic alphabetical scripts in which mainly the consonants are represented in writing, while the markings of vowels (using diacritics) is optional.