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Building Arabic Vocabulary through Reading: For Advanced Students of MSA
Advanced and High Intermediate Arabic learners can benefit greatly from reading texts that cover a broad range of different themes, to build their vocabulary and attain a higher proficiency level. The authors of this textbook have carefully selected a lively variety of texts that cover controversial issues and current events, which are likely to arouse students’ attention and interest. In the course of reading to learn, students will not only practice strategies (skimming, scanning, careful reading, and guessing for vocabulary recognition), but they will also engage more deeply in the material as informative of Arab and Egyptian society, politics, and culture. Another important objective is to direct the attention of the student to MSA connectors, which are essential for comprehension. Readers will begin to notice high-frequency words and idiomatic expressions in multiple contexts, reinforcing their retention and ability to then use them in discussion. The grammatical structures of MSA styles occurring in the texts can be reviewed and reinforced. The texts appear in order from least to greatest linguistic complexity, and to a certain extent, by the topic which they tackle. This makes it easy for instructors to choose the most level-appropriate material to present to their classes. An experimental copy of the book has been piloted over the last four years at the Arabic Language Institute at the American University in Cairo, with the result that the first 15 lessons have been deemed correct for the high intermediate level and the remaining lessons for advanced students. The book includes exercises after every five lessons, and all the drills are gathered in an appendix following the text, as well as a glossary for all vocabulary items.
312 pages, Paperback
First published January 15, 2014
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August 20, 2017
Its a collection of newspaper/journal/magazine articles that discuss topics that are circulating far and wide within the Arab world. It's a publication by AUC (American University in Cairo) Press so the views that are being presented are those belonging to authors based in Egypt or Cairo. This can be seen clearly from the fact that Al-Ahram have the most articles published here compared to other journals.
Only one fourth of the articles in this book that I can consider them as decent or great. Most of them are written by specialist in the field (Farouk Shosha on the topic language, Fuad Zakaria on Orientalism etc). The majority are being written by political commentators of liberal leanings with Ahmed Bahjat as the most glaring example. Their writings belong in the dustbin. Ahmed Eissa criticism of the Brotherhood for example is way misplaced and void of nuances.
Other articles is ok and passable but some are below average or doesn't belong in here. George Ishak's and Ahmed Zuweil's are one of them. And both of the pieces by Mahmoud Darwish is so out of place and self-indulgent. The editors should really opt for Ghassan Kafany writings over Darwish on the issue of Palestine. His is a much accomplished works and relevant.
On that note I could say that most of the views or opinions that are being represented here are not the mainstream ones.
The vocabularies that are contained in the book do come as helpful when one is reading the newspaper or magazines. So does the connectors (penanda wacana). But it is still deficient both in quantity and quality.
As an alternative one could comb through the prominent political websites in the Arab World for quality articles. Recommended sites such as Al-Jazeera, Sasapost, Arab21, and Rasef22.
3.5 overall.
Only one fourth of the articles in this book that I can consider them as decent or great. Most of them are written by specialist in the field (Farouk Shosha on the topic language, Fuad Zakaria on Orientalism etc). The majority are being written by political commentators of liberal leanings with Ahmed Bahjat as the most glaring example. Their writings belong in the dustbin. Ahmed Eissa criticism of the Brotherhood for example is way misplaced and void of nuances.
Other articles is ok and passable but some are below average or doesn't belong in here. George Ishak's and Ahmed Zuweil's are one of them. And both of the pieces by Mahmoud Darwish is so out of place and self-indulgent. The editors should really opt for Ghassan Kafany writings over Darwish on the issue of Palestine. His is a much accomplished works and relevant.
On that note I could say that most of the views or opinions that are being represented here are not the mainstream ones.
The vocabularies that are contained in the book do come as helpful when one is reading the newspaper or magazines. So does the connectors (penanda wacana). But it is still deficient both in quantity and quality.
As an alternative one could comb through the prominent political websites in the Arab World for quality articles. Recommended sites such as Al-Jazeera, Sasapost, Arab21, and Rasef22.
3.5 overall.
Displaying 1 of 1 review