FSI Modern Written Arabic

FSI Modern Written Arabic $25 off CD version, Levels 1 and 2! | $50 both levels! Within the Arabic speaking world there is a considerable diversity of dialects spoken. In addition to the colloquial dialects, there is a literary language known as Modern Written Arabic, which functions as the official language of newspapers, radio, television, and academia. This book and audio CD course gives a thorough grounding in MWA, focusing on newspapers, editorials, essays, books, and periodicals, and is designed to give the user access to the realms of journalism, government, and literature. It requires a knowledge of Arabic script and pronunciation as well as elementary grammar, and is meant for use with an instructor. Level OneWas $295, now $270! Coursebook with 24 CDs. $270   Level TwoWas $225, now $199! Coursebook with 8 CDs. $199   Levels One and TwoWas $445, now $420! 2 coursebooks, 32 CDs. $420

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Within the Arabic speaking world there is a considerable diversity of dialects spoken. In addition to the colloquial dialects, there is a literary language which can be roughly divided into three historical periods: Classical Arabic, Medieval Arabic, and Modern Written Arabic, which reflects a renaissance in Arab self-consciousness and represents a trend breaking with traditional forms and ideals. However, whatever the differences between the written Arabic of these three periods differences in vocabulary and style, there are strong bonds of continuity, especially in morphology and syntax.

In the Arab world today Modern Written Arabic (MWA) has no native speakers, but has a special function as the vehicle of literary expression within Arab society, with high prestige as the modern counterpart of a highly esteemed literary language of thirteen centuries duration, and a long history of painstaking, thorough grammatical study. It has in addition a number of grammatical categories not present in the colloquials (e.g., case inflections, dual forms for pronouns and. verbs, etc.). This book and audio CD course gives a thorough grounding in MWA, focusing on newspapers, editorials, essays, books, and periodicals, and is designed to give the user access to the official language of journalism, government, and literature. The student is expected to have learned the Arabic writing system and pronunciation; in addition, familiarity with the principles of syllabification and stress, pausal and non-pausal forms, and the transcription system utilized in the notes and vocabulary are also required. Although the course is meant for use with an instructor, a dedicated student may make progress in self-study.

Scope and Purpose

Instruction in Modern Written Arabic in the Foreign Service Institute takes place, broadly speaking, in three stages, each of which partially overlaps with the stage following:

(1) Prepared materials (the MWA course). During this stage the student gains recognitional mastery of a basic vocabulary and becomes thoroughly familiar with basic morphological and syntactic patterns. Because the goal of instruction in this course is to read Arabic for information, the student will translate extensive selections (approximately 1400 typewritten pages of Arabic for this stage), and will prepare a limited part of the total for reading aloud. Matters of speaking a modified form of MWA, comprehension of formal spoken Arabic or any of the dialects, as well as composition are not dealt with in this portion of the FSI curriculum (though they are handled elsewhere).

(2) Newspapers. The student begins to deal with this form of unprepared Arabic materials when they are about three-quarters of the way through the first stage above. They will move progressively from the easier portions of the newspaper (front-page news, usually translated from foreign languages into Arabic) to the more difficult local news, editorials, essays, and the like (all normally composed in Arabic).

(3) Anthologies, books, periodicals, etc. After the student has finished the first stage and has shown ability to read newspapers with reasonable facility, he will begin to read Arabic books which are of relevance to his interests. He will start with the simpler political, economic, and historical materials before moving into literary material (which has its own inherent difficulties).

Thus, the minimum goal for FSI students is to master the second stage; usually not too many go far beyond that unless they have had a prior background in Arabic. The MWA course lays the foundation for this second stage.

Outline Of The Lessons

In this first volume, the Arabic of all sentences and drills is to be read aloud; in subsequent lessons, the emphasis is shifted to reading an increasing volume of material for comprehension, with a concomitant decrease in emphasis on reading Arabic aloud.

Each lesson of this volume is divided into the following sections:


• Basic Sentences: These sentences contain the new vocabulary and grammatical constructions in the lesson.
• Supplementary Sentences: These sentences utilize the vocabulary and grammatical constructions introduced in the Basic Sentences.
• Drills: These provide the student with opportunity to familiarize himself with very commonly recurring grammatical patterns and words and phrases. In subsequent volumes the drills are replaced by reading selections.
• Notes: The notes are designed to explain to the student those new grammatical constructions which are included in the lesson and to enable them to understand the particular construction involved. The notes are not intended to be a substitute for a systematic or complete presentation of the grammar (the student in FSI is given a systematic presentation of the grammar after he has finished approximately 60 lessons in the MWA course), but are rather intended to aid hint in understanding the lesson at hand.
• Vocabulary: The new vocabulary for each lesson is given in the order in which it occurs in the lesson with the meaning appropriate to it at that point. There is also a complete word list for the book arranged by the first Arabic consonant of the form rather than by root at the end of the book. Note that, as soon as it is appropriate, both the perfect and imperfect forms of verbs are given. Further, derived forms of the verbs are indicated by the conventional Roman numerals II through X. Also, nouns are cited in both the singular and plural, and are transcribed in pause form (diptotes being noted by a superscript 2, e.g. /mammálik²/).