Elementary Modern Standard Arabic: Volume 1, Pronunciation and Writing; Lessons 1-30 (Elementary Modern Standard Arabic, Lessons 1-30) (Paperback)

~ Peter F. Abboud (Editor), Ernest N. McCarus (Editor)
Key Phrases: masculine sound plurals, helping vowel, imperfect stem, Printed Written, Perfect Imperfect, Position Shape Examples (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The Elementary Modern Standard Arabic Course (EMSA) is the premier introduction, for the English-speaking student, to the active written language of the contemporary Arab world. Expressly designed for the beginning student, the course is written by a team of Arabic language teachers consisting of native and non-native Arabic speakers, linguists and people whose primary interests are literature and allied areas. It implements an audio-lingual approach to language teaching while presenting the elements of Modern Standard Arabic as written and spoken in the contemporary Arab World. Volume 1 is complete in itself and presents a practical introduction to the writing system of Arabic and to its pronunciation, with reading and writing pronunciation drills. Thirty lessons provide a basic working knowledge of Arabic. Each lesson contains a text, a vocabulary, grammar and drills including oral and written comprehension passages. An Arabic-English glossary completes the volume. The course continues in Volume 2, which extends the knowledge of vocabulary, grammar and expression. Fifteen further lessons are followed by appendices which give reference information.

Product Details

• Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (April 29, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521272955
• ISBN-13: 978-0521272957
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #129,275 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, December 5, 2002

By	Ibn Fattouma (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews

I have been studying Arabic for 5 years now. When I first started, I used this book. Subsequently, I used the Georgetown Al-Kitab and the OSU study materials. Based on my experience with all these beginning books, I have been able to form an opinion of "Elementary Modern Standard Arabic".

The advantages of the book are its easy structure, grammar emphasis and easy-to-understand explanations. The book covers 30 chapters/lessons. Each one of them is structured very rigidly: grammar points, new grammar sets and reading comprehension with new words from the same lesson. I find this structure of each lesson very conducive to learning and reinforcing what the student learns.

The disadvantage of the book is its lack of rich vocabulary, its special focus in choice of texts for the lessons. In addition, the lack of graphics, pictures, etc makes it somewhat unengaging compared to other language books.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thorough, easy to understand, but requires some patience, June 9, 2003

By	Khalid Ikram (Potomac, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Comparing this book with others of its genre, I must say that it has stood the test of time rather well. The lessons are written clearly, and are not difficult to follow on one's own. They are comprehensive, and cover as much grammar as is needed to go to quite a high level. The book can also serve as a reference volume. The accompanying tapes (which you should absolutely buy) give hours of examples of pronounciation and drill.

The downside is that the book is long. (However, remember the old saying that, "Short writing makes for long reading.") Its vocabulary is not particularly helpful for general conversation. And it is not produced in a "slick" manner; specifically, its appearance is of typed rather than printed pages, and it is devoid of the graphics that many present day students like.

My conclusion is that if you want a solid coverage of the grammar of Modern Standard Arabic written in an easy paced manner, and have the patience to "eat the elephant a bite at a time," this book will serve you well. If you are looking for something that will help you with conversational Arabic, or one that will keep you entertained while you are learning, then this is not the right book.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Avoid this book, May 7, 2002

By	Shaun M. Overton "quickdrawut" (Colleyville, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've used this book during two years of Arabic at the University of Texas. My professor cannot stand this book, and beginning in Fall 2002, the beginning Arabic textbook will be replaced by another (al-Kitab, I believe). My TA despises the book, and very, very few of the students could glean any information from it.

My professor's major problem with the book are the Basic Texts and Comprhension passages which appear in every chapter. They are terribly out of date, and frankly, pointless. They are written in a "dumbed down" way, which makes sense in the initial chapters, but as you continue throughout the book, it gets very annoying.

My TA made the point to me that the book's emphasis on grammar is not the ideal way to teach a language. It makes sense if you wish to understand Arabic as a linguist, but for those trying to learn the language for reading and speaking purposes, the information is seriously over-detailed. Entirely too much emphasis is placed on specific grammatical exceptions that I rarely employ in my reading or speaking of Arabic. I feel this time could have been better utilized learning more common elements of Modern Standard Arabic.

As a student, I have a strong command of English grammar. This served me well in the lengthy explanations of grammatical elements, and after some struggle I could understand the concepts through the linguistic jargon. Most students, however, are not grammar experts. If you start trying to learn Arabic without a prior knowledge of simple grammatical concepts like what the imperfect case is in English, you will be dead in the water. This is a simple point, I know, but one which frustrated 95% of the students.

My biggest complaint is with the vocab. I can talk for hours about politics and school in Arabic, but if I try and discuss a topic of a nonacademic nature, I'm fnished before I start. Example: the word for walk does not appear until lesson 32, a lesson not even in the first volume.

And one more note: if you are trying to learn Arabic without the help of a native speaker, then do not buy this book. Pronunciation of certain letters in Arabic is markedly different from that of English, and there is absolutely no way you will speak correctly if you try and learn it from reading a book.