Introduction

This book is the outcome of several years of our lecturing experiences at the University of Goettingen, which can help students and other people interested in the Arabic language start speaking Arabic. We have deliberately avoided detailed grammatical explanations, because there are plenty of other excellent works on this subject. Our emphasis is on using the Arabic language and learning vocabulary that are frequently used in specific situations. We have tried to simplify our teaching method by using short sentences in everyday situations. To achieve this aim, we have concentrated on exercises related to seeing, listening and pronunciation. We have selected an easy character style and used the notation throughout the text so that the user may read it correctly without unnecessary difficulties. This book is accompanied by a recorded CD of material spoken with a clear and slow voice so that the students can practice correct pronunciation. Our main goal is to teach the standard Arabic language, though some typical and useful colloquial phrases from Syria are also listed at the end of the book. Our book is not only meant to help students studying Arabic in university courses, but also to be a valuable resource for anyone wishing to learn the Arabic language. It can be used to study at home or can be taken along as a guide on a trip to an Arabic-speaking country. With this book, we hope that we have achieved these aims.

Our warm thanks to Prof. Dr. Sebastian Guenther, the director of the Institute of Islamic Sciences and Arabic Studies at the University of Goettingen, for his interest and encouragement in publishing this book,

Likewise we thank Dr. Majed Abu Madi at the Department of Arabic language and culture at DamascusUniversity for his friendly advice and help.

Many thanks to our students at the University of Goettingen for their ideas and suggestions. Last but not least, we want to thank all those who contributed to publishing this book.

The Authors

Book content

1-    Twenty lessons, each one a complete unit including the following components:

1. Daily conversation
2. Reading-text

III. Long dialogue (conversation)

IV. General practical exercises

1. Conjugation exercises

VI. List of vocabulary (without translation)

VII.Space for students to use for notes

2-    Some Syrian colloquial phrases

3-    Answer key

4-    Useful list of vocabulary from selected subjects

     At the airport

     At the railway station

     At the hotel

     At the restaurant

  At the bank

  At the post office

5-    Vocabulary Index in Arabic, German and English

6-    Additional teaching materials

7-    CD with texts, dialogues, phrases and exercises

How to use the book

We have implemented our long-standing experiences in the field of teaching Arabic conversation as a basis, and left the learning and teaching method open for the teachers and users of this book to choose.

Useful and demonstrative exercises (multiple choice):

Although the answers are in the answer key appendix at the students' disposal, the student should first ask for the teacher's help to understand the content of sentences and the translation of vocabulary.  In order to complete the incomplete sentences, the student will choose a word from a given set of possibilities, and he/she should be able to explain the choice. The difficulty of exercises can be increased by asking the student to use another pronoun, to use other conjugated verbs or to change the agreement information of the nouns in the exercises.

Conjugation exercises in sentences:

First, the student should understand the example exercise, then he or she should conjugate the given verb with accompanying personal pronoun, using the sample sentence. It is also possible to build new sentences by using the given verbs.

The vocabulary

The new vocabulary items used are translated into German and English in the Vocabulary Index, and are given untranslated at the end of each lesson. Afterwards, some useful vocabulary items are sorted into groups for selected subjects, so that students may find them quickly. We have also enclosed some typical and useful Syrian colloquial phrases.

CD

All conversations, reading-texts and some Syrian colloquial phrases are located on the enclosed CD, for listening practice. Finally, we want to recommend using this book and the enclosed CD not only at the university, but also in your spare time. We also advise students to read the texts and reading exercises aloud.