Al-kitaab Fii Ta Callum Al-carabiyya: A Textbook for Beginning Arabic

Al-Kitaab: Part One develops skills in standard Arabic while providing additional material in both colloquial and classical Arabic. With new video material and revised and updated text and exercises, the bound-in and revised DVD supersedes both the former CD audio set and video DVD previously available only as separate items--making this singular volume a comprehensive whole for those immersed in the early and intermediate stages of learning Arabic.

Providing approximately 150 contact hours of college-level instruction, parts of this revised edition are updated with contemporary selections for reading comprehension. The organization of the chapters has been adapted to reflect the most current pedagogical developments. Audio tracks for vocabulary sections now allow students to hear a new word followed by a sentence using it in context with previously acquired vocabulary and grammatical structures, enabling students to build new vocabulary skills while reviewing old material. The basic texts have been refilmed with a new cast of actors. The DVD also contains substantially more material that exposes the learner to Egyptian Arabic: students have the options of seeing and hearing the video of each lesson in both Modern Standard Arabic and Egyptian colloquial Arabic. In addition, a short dialogue in Egyptian colloquial Arabic appears at the end of each lesson. New video materials also feature interviews with Egyptians (subtitled in English) about various aspects of Arab culture, such as gender issues, fasting in the Muslim and Christian traditions, social clubs and their significance, and more.

FEATURES OF PART ONE, Second Edition: - Develops all language-related skills including reading, listening, speaking, writing, and cultural knowledge

- Immediately incorporates extensive use of authentic materials for reading, listening, and grammatical practice, thus relating abstract grammatical concepts to practical skills

- Presents narrative-based content through audio and video media rather than written text to develop meaning-focused language processing skills, utilizing two main characters and their extended families

- Develops reading skills through the use of composed texts derived from the main narrative and authentic texts from newspapers and journals

- Introduces grammar using spiraling and inference, challenging students to discover the grammar of the language by means of analogy, problem solving, and educated guessing

- Reinforces grammar and vocabulary through extensive classroom and homework exercises that provide constant review and expand to challenge students as their skills develop

- Introduces students to Egyptian colloquial through scenes based on the main narrative to promote the use of shared vocabulary and structure of the two registers to increase listening comprehension skills

- Contains Arabic-English and English-Arabic glossaries and reference charts as well as a new grammar index

Kristen Brustad is an associate professor of Arabic at the University of Texas at Austin.

Mahmoud Al-Batal is an associate professor of Arabic and the director of the Arabic Flagship Program at the University of Texas at Austin.

Abbas Al-Tonsi is a professor of Arabic at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar.