Alif Baa: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds | Kristen Brustad, Mahmoud Al-Batal, ... |...

Alif Baa: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds | Kristen Brustad, Mahmoud Al-Batal, ... | Great start for even greater beginning lessons...

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Alif Baa: Introduc...

	Alif Baa: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds Kristen Brustad, Mahmoud Al-Batal, ... Georgetown University Press, 2004 - 168 pages average customer review:based on 57 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great beginner book

I used Alif Baa (with DVDs) in Arabic 101 at the University of Maryland (Baltimore County) and it's probably the best beginner book I have encountered. The DVDs are great and add a lot to the text and exercises. It even shows a chart with the letters, and you can click on the appropriate character to hear and show someone pronouncing it in several different voices. Great idea. Lots of exercises to listen to and write down. And, for $5, there's an answer key to Alif Baa which will help an awful lot if you want to teach yourself.

Great start for even greater beginning lessons...

If you are seriously considering learning the Arabic language to full fluency, then this is the book to start with. Just like it implies, it is an introduction simply to the letters and sounds. As with any language that involves foreign characters, you want to develop a firm foundation in the alphabet before moving on to anything else. The DVDs that come with the book are excellent, granted the music at the beginning is a bit annoying but it gets better in the next series. This book should be followed with "Al-kitaab fii Ta'allum Al-Arabiiyaa" as it is the same group of Arabic professors who continues to teach in the same style and rhythm.

If you are concerned with whether you have the answers right, one thing you can do is find an Arab or someone who speaks Arabic, and have them correct you. If you don't know anyone like that, make use of internet blogs and ask people to correct you through that venue.

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Alif Baa: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds

The "Alif Baa: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds"
workbook and DVD are excellent for learning the Arabic alphabet thoroughly and quickly. Highly recommended. Can be used in a classroom setting, or can be successfully used for self-study.

good introduction to the arabic alphabet, really bad glossary

this is a pretty good introductory book if you have a teacher to help you out, wouldn't recommend it for self-teaching because there is not enough explanation of vocabulary.

also, the glossary is horrible, it is alphabetized in english only so you can't look up arabic words if you don't know the english translation (kind of defeats the purpose...). you need to buy an arabic-english dictionary separately. the book teaches some vocabulary and some cultural phrases.
i had a horrible time with the CD lessons as did most of my class--sometimes the lessons wouldn't play correctly. the cd seemed to work better when played on a computer instead of a dvd player.

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Expensive but the best