Book Description: The beauty of the Arabic language, both spoken and written--and the richness of the Arabic-speaking world, its history and culture--has recently become of increasing importance and a matter of revelation for the English-speaking world. It is essential as this new century unfolds, that understanding develops between nations--and language is the magic key.
The Al-Kitaab Arabic language program is among the English-speaking world’s most widely used Arabic language learning texts. Alif Baa with DVDs: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds is the first part of the Al-Kitaab program. This revised, second edition contains updated readings, new and revised exercises, and completely new audio/video materials on two DVDs bound into each volume.
In teaching the sounds and letters of Arabic, Alif Baa provides a variety of exercises aimed at developing the crucial nascent skills of reading, listening, writing, speaking, and cultural understanding. In conjunction with learning how to read and write the alphabet, Alif Baa introduces about 150 basic vocabulary words, including conventional forms of politeness and social greetings.
Standard Arabic vocabulary is distributed throughout the book, enhanced by the visual and audio materials on the DVDs and implemented in practical exercises. It introduces a range of Arabic from colloquial to standard in authentic contexts, including social greetings in dialogues that take place in an Egyptian context, the most widely-used and understood Arabic dialect.
Finally, Alif Baa includes capsules on Arab culture as well as an English-Arabic glossary. Alif Baa provides the essential first twenty contact hours of instruction that are the foundation for the rest of the Al-Kitaab language program.
Great Book Currently I am in an intensive language course at BYU and we used this book the first week to learn the Alphabet of Arabic. With this book and hard work my class was able to write the alphabet in just one week and understand the vocabulary words given within the book. This is the best out on the market. I know if you are willing to put in the time you will be able to write the alphabet in one week if you choose to do so. Like any language it takes a great deal of work but the rewards will be endless. I highly recommend this book to beginning students of Arabic.
Great Starter Book/DVD This book is a great product for someone who wants to start to learn Arabic from the ground up. The DVDs that are included are a great training aid and I would highly recommend this product.
Very complete I have been using this book in my college Arabic classes three years now. It is an excellent book and is very complete. The DVDs supplement the book nicely. It would be almost impossible not to be able to learn the Arabic alphabet and some basic vocabulary with this book. The problem I have with using it for my classes is that you have to complete 7 of the 10 chapters before knowing all the letters which means we've covered almost half the semester before we can use words that contain some of the latter letters in the alphabet. I'm planning on writing my own curriculum to fix this problem from now on, but I can honestly say that I would recommend this book without reservation, either for use in class on in self study. It won't do a whole lot beyond teaching you to read, write and understand the alphabet and writing system, but that's a big start in Arabic. The Arabic language is not any more difficult than any of the Indo European languages to learn once you have mastered the alphabet.
Nice beginner book I used this book for my beginners Arabic class. Its a nice introduction to the Arabic alaphabet. The DVDs were ok. I thought the listening exercises were very helpful. You get to see the word in Arabic, and then hear it. The other parts of the DVD, were not as helpful.
Textbook This was the textbook used for my beginning Arabic class in college. It is very helpful and straightforward and is not overwhelming. It was the only resource used for my course, it comes with two dvds. My only complaint is that you have to buy the answer key separate, which granted is not very expensive. This is the cheapest textbook I've ever bought.
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