The Language Center

Arabic as a Foreign Language Program (AFL)

Yarmouk University

Yarmouk University is one of Jordan’s leading public higher educational institutions located in the city of Irbid in the northern part of the kingdom. The university has an enrollment of about 42,000 students studying in faculties of Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, Engineering, Sciences, Information Technology, Business, Law, Educational Sciences, Arts, Shari’a and Islamic Studies, Mass Communication, Physical Education, Archaeology and Anthropology, Tourism and Hotel Management, and Fine Arts. One important center at Yarmouk University is the Language Center which offers the (AFL) program (Arabic as a Foreign Language) throughout the Fall, Spring, and Summer sessions. About 80% of the regular students return to campus during the summer semester and enroll in classes. Yarmouk University has many international students from different countries who enrich the intercultural interaction on campus. The University atmosphere provides an excellent opportunity for foreign students to converse with local students in Arabic, form friendships and polish their language skills, and learn about the Jordanian culture. The surrounding area of the university provides many recreational facilities with convenient restaurants and cafes within a walking distance from campus and with reasonable prices for students and a variety of meal options. Public transportation within Irbid, and to other Jordanian cities including the capital of Amman is also convenient. The community is hospitable, friendly, and kind. Irbid is the second largest city in Jordan, yet it is more affordable for a student to live in than Amman.

Quick Facts

Importance of Arabic as a Language

The United Nations recognizes Arabic as one of the most wide-spread languages in the world. It is the mother tongue for Arabs living in 22 countries, from Morocco and Mauritania in the West to Iraq and the Arabian Gulf in the East. Arabic is also the language of the Holy Quran, the liturgical language for more than one billion Muslims of various languages and origins in countries across the globe. If you count all of the varieties of today's Arabic together, you can safely estimate that there are about 313 million Arabic speakers in the whole world, making it the fifth most-spoken language globally after Mandarin, Spanish, English and Hindi.

In light of this importance, and due to the growing international political and economic interest in the Middle East region, the Language Center at Yarmouk University offers a variety of courses in Arabic for non-native speakers. Courses are offered as language levels taking in consideration the international standards of foreign languages teaching as adopting in the United States and the European Union.

Yarmouk University Language Center

The Language Center is an independent academic unit of Yarmouk University. It was established in 1979 to prepare and teach the English language requirement courses for the University students. The Language Center expanded its mission in 1984 to offer programs in Arabic as a Foreign Language (AFL) and it has gained a universal reputation in this field, with a long history of partnerships with private and public foreign institutions.