15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Al-kitaab al-Thaanii, October 6, 2007
This review is from: Al-Kitaab fii Tacallum al-cArabiyya with DVDs, Second Edition: Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-'Arabiyya with DVDs: A Textbook for ... Two, Second Edition (Part 2) (Arabic Edition) (Paperback)
While the al-Kitaab series is not without its flaws--among which must be counted an overemphasis, in this reader's opinion, on the Egyptian dialect of Arabic--it remains the best of the several offerings available. And this second volume is notable for correcting what was perhaps the most lamentable weakness of the first volume; namely, a lack of attention to the acquisition of vocabulary, which must necessarily underwrite advanced language learning (particularly in the context of Arabic, whose grammar is not especially difficult). Still and all, an attractive and eminently useful course, made the more so by the inclusion of well-designed DVDs to aid in oral comprehension. Recommended, with only very minimal reservations.
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33 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
a stinking corpse, February 15, 2009
This review is from: Al-Kitaab fii Tacallum al-cArabiyya with DVDs, Second Edition: Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-'Arabiyya with DVDs: A Textbook for ... Two, Second Edition (Part 2) (Arabic Edition) (Paperback)
One thing must be said about Ms. Brustad and Messrs. Al-Batal and At-Tonsi: They do not embarrass easily. Those learners who made it to the end of Book One in this numbingly shoddy trilogy of unedited mediocrity find themselves with another nearly insurmountable obstacle to overcome and very little and inadequate help to do it with.
The flaws in this volume are the same as those in the first, only more so: little explanatory material is offered, and the student is expected to read original materials from Arabic newspapers and magazines without new vocabulary being glossed, so the choices come down to struggling for hours with a dictionary to finish a reading section, skimming the material to get the sense without using a dictionary (which the authors actually recommend) or waiting for a teacher patient enough to spoon feed it in a class. If we knew Arabic well enough to read it on our own, why would we need a textbook?
It is widely considered that Arabic is a difficult language, and in some respects that may be so, but the lagging state of Arabic education in this country has less to do with the complexity of its grammar than it does with the sheer inferiority of the pedagogical materials that are available. There are equally difficult or more difficult languages which have much higher proportions of successful students (Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew- to name just a few)because the textbooks available for their learners present their material systematically and comprehensively. There is no reason why this could not be done for Arabic as well -it is simply an effort that these authors did not choose to make.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A rich, thoughtful text, May 20, 2010
This review is from: Al-Kitaab fii Tacallum al-cArabiyya with DVDs, Second Edition: Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-'Arabiyya with DVDs: A Textbook for ... Two, Second Edition (Part 2) (Arabic Edition) (Paperback)
Having used this textbook, I must say I am somewhat baffled by the vitriol employed by some reviewers, a few of whom have gone so far as to hurl personal insults against the authors. While there is always room for criticism, I find the harsh invective is to be completely unmerited.
First, some basic information for the unfamiliar:
-- The book consists of 10 chapters. Each chapter is built around a main text, which is an authentic piece of writing (usually nonfiction, though Chapter 7 does introduce us to the classic "Alf Layla wa Layla," aka "A Thousand and One Nights").
-- To prepare us to read the text, each chapter begins with a list of vocabulary that will appear in the reading, followed by a number of vocabulary exercises. The DVDs also have the reader use each vocabulary word in a sample sentence -- very helpful.
-- Grammar topics are presented after the reading, and are based on actual grammatical forms and structures encountered in the text.
-- This is followed by additional reading and listening exercises, also taken from authentic Arabic sources.
-- Ending each chapter is a section on 'aamiyyah (colloquial), which, like Part I of Al-Kitaab, focuses on the Egyptian colloquial. (In my course we skipped this section, so my review cannot reflect any judgment on it.)
I admire the thought that went into organizing the content of each chapter. The vocabulary list at the beginning of each chapter first presents those words that share a common root with a previously learned word. This not only helps remind us of the meaning of the "old" word, but it also helps us to internalize derivation patterns and trains us to be "root-conscious" as we are learning new words. This is hugely important in Arabic.
The vocabulary exercises are well conceived, and the authors do a great job of "recycling" the vocabulary from previous chapters in the new vocabulary exercises. Also, I noticed that the sentences in the vocabulary exercises grow increasingly long and complicated over the course of the book, to appropriately match the student's progress.
The readings are challenging, but no more so than they should be. We are not expected to understand every last word in the reading, but rather to use our skills of inference based on contextual clues to fill in the gaps in our knowledge. Being able to glean the main ideas or arguments from a reading despite not knowing every word is a crucial skill when learning any language.
One commonly heard complaint about the Al-Kitaab series is that the grammar explanations are not thorough enough. While I can understand this critique, upon reflection I don't agree with it. In part, this is what separates the functional approach of the Al-Kitaab series from the grammar-translation approach of older textbooks, where grammar topics were presented up front, in encyclopedic fashion, and lessons were built around them. I believe that the authors have generally made wise (though admittedly difficult) decisions on how to present just the grammar that we need to function in the language. I strongly believe that a textbook should provide a supportive environment for exploring the language, and not an exhaustive treatise on grammar. Al-Kitaab Part Two does this.
Another reviewer rues the lack of an English-Arabic glossary. I sympathize with this complaint, but the authors do explain in the preface that this decision was a conscious one, "because we believe that at this stage it is important for you to speak and write by thinking in Arabic. ... Overreliance on an English-Arabic lexicon can keep you stuck thinking in English." Certainly a defensible position, even if one doesn't agree with it.
I'm not saying this is a flawless work, because I don't believe such a textbook exists. But I do think it's a well-conceived, well-executed volume based on sound language-learning concepts. For me it has worked well.
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