Customer Reviews

Ace My Language - Arabic Edition

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Please note, this is not a textbook. You don't get grammar or vocab. It's an exercise book to practice listening and reading skills for media Arabic, aimed at improving test scores on the DLPT and similar examinations.

This book is a collection of just over 400 Arabic news items each of around 100 words. The author notes, "Using proprietary statistical methods, I have ensured that you will encounter extensive essential vocabulary, every type of sentences structure, and varying degrees of textual complexity that you will see and hear in real-world contexts and on many standardized tests."

The first section contains the texts in a very clear Arabic font, followed by a single multiple choice question. The second section simply contains the questions and the third contains the answers to the questions. Included is a CD with all of the texts read by Ghneim, the files being provided in WAV and MP3 format.

The value in this book is the excellent choice of texts, the clear, very readable Arabic font and Ghneim's excellent, clear and well-paced readings of the texts. There is no glossary provided, and I think that is appropriate, since in my experience with these texts I can get the subject and broad picture and then go to Hans Wehr for clarification of unknown vocab.

One issue I noted was that, in transferring the audio files to iTunes and then to my iPod, every file had the EXACT same name. When transferred to my desktop, and having changed some of the names, the original (unhelpful) title reverted as soon as I dragged it into iTunes. As you can imagine, this resulted in the VERY TEDIOUS process of moving all 406 MP3s across to iTunes, then clicking on and relabeling them in a numerical sequence.

Well, that was a pain. But having transferred and renamed each track I now have a massive resource for listening study.

The questions, for me, are less useful. But that is because I have reached a level of self-study. But I am sure they would form a useful basis for classroom discussion of the texts.

I absolutely recommend this for upper-intermediate self-study and advanced revision and think it would be terrifically useful for teachers of Arabic.

I've given it five stars, which may seem high (my previous review also scored five) but I think that reflects the quality and effort that has gone into what is a very useful study tool in an area of language study that has over the years been a bit shambolic and random. Clearly I am not assessing it on grammar instruction or glossary - since neither of these areas are covered - but on the basis of what the book is designed to do and how ell it achieves its objective.

This is a great book to help with your listening. Each listening exercise is only a short paragraph so you don't get overwhelmed. The material gets more difficult as you move through the book.

I purchased this book back in 2007 before it was available on Amazon.com (I'm almost annoyed that it's so easily accessible as it took me forever to find such a great resource just using google). I bought it knowing I was going to take the DLPT a few months down the road. This book (or more like Reader, as it is spiral plastic-bound) has every touch and feel of what the DLPT is actually like. There are three parts to this book: 1) written out Arabic excerpts from about 50 words up to maybe 200 dealing with absolutely any issue 2) A single question like What is this article talking about? A, B, C, or D multiple choice questions, and 3) A CD with all the excerpts read aloud -in very well-spoken MSA- that can be put onto your iPod..I believe there are 406 total questions/excerpts/audio tracks.
ALSO, duh, in the back there are all the answers.
What this book DOESN'T have, unfortunately, is a listing of any vocab. As stated earlier, there are excerpts dealing with just about everything, from pigs getting massages in China before they're butchered for meat, some terrorists somewhere blew up a house, the Prime Minister of France is attending an arts festival, and Scientists somewhere discovered a cure for some disease...it's absolutely crazy how much vocab is in this book that I don't know, and I've been off and on studying since 2002!
However, this book helped me learn early on that I don't need to know every single word, I just have to recognize maybe even just one simple word that will give away the answer. So as you progress, you get more self-confidence, which alone will make you feel better about yourself going into the test.
In the end, I passed the DLPT. They wouldn't tell me my score (3, 4, or 5), but I can easily say that without this book I would have been screwed!
For vocab, you may want to check out: [...] and scroll to the bottom where it has links to common words/ verbs from the Arabic DLPT.

If you are an Arabic student, preparing for a language test (ie: DLPT 5), this book is perfect. The book has a variety of Articles and a wide range of applicable vocabulary.

I wish the author had used various Arabic speakers to read the passages, instead of reading all 408 of them himself. By using different Arabic speakers, men and women, the listener would be better prepared for the slightly different tones, stresses, and pronunciations of words.

I ordered this book to supplement my language listening and reading comprehension. The accompanying CD really makes this text more useful. Included are both MP3 and WMA audio files so I can choose how I prefer to listen to the passages. These can easily be transferred to a memory card for my Creative Zen or my Sony eReader Touch. The speaker pronounces clearly and his reading speed is not too fast-great for those of us who are just getting started.

The book is broken into 3 sections: the Arabic passages with corresponding questions, the questions only to use with the audio, and the answer key.

I ordered mine like new, so I got a great bargain. Highly recommended for beginners who want additional material for listening and reading comprehension and intermediate learners who want to brush up on their skills before testing.

Using this book to study for the DLPT is a bit like training for a 400-meter relay on a 350-meter track - you'll get a nasty surprise come race day.

Simply put, the actual DLPT is considerably more difficult than the material found in Ace My Language. The passages are 2-3 times longer than the passages in the book and written with more complexity and variety of style (despite what the author claims in the introduction, all of the passages are written in pretty much the same style). Most importantly, the QUESTIONS after each passage do not challenge your comprehension of the material the way that DLPT questions do. Almost every question in Ace My Language asks little beyond, "what is this story about?" a question so simple that you are very unlikely to see it on the DLPT - where you are more likely to be asked what the author implied about something.

Without giving away too much, I will also warn that the audio portion of the test is considerably tougher and more realistic than the slow recitations of each passage that come with the book in a CD.

Ace My Language is useful in that it, like the DLPT, contains passages on a wide range of subjects (politics/arts/science/medicine/natural disasters/etc.) and is certain to broaden your vocabulary. However, considering that you'll be looking up unknown words on your own because the books provides no translations or vocabulary lists, you might as well just keep your $70, go to aljazeera.net and start reading and watching. In fact, that's what I recommend, scoring a 2+/2+ after a year out of the classroom.

The DLI provides fairly representative examples of its DLPT questions on its site - Google "DLPT Guides."

I have very much appreciated the amount of content and the variety of Ghneim's book. To me the only significant drawback to it is that there is only a single comprehension question for each passage. A better method would be to ask a general question, then a couple more specific questions. Sometimes the questions asked were too obvious with or without a good comprehension of a given text.
Otherwise, I was happy to find this book.

Ace My Language - Arabic Edition