Building Arabic Vocabulary through Reading: For Advanced Students of MSA

Nariman Naili Al-Warraki

Advanced and High Intermediate Arabic learners can benefit greatly from reading texts that cover a broad range of different themes, to build their vocabulary and attain a higher proficiency level. The authors of this textbook have carefully selected a lively variety of texts that cover controversial issues and current events, which are likely to arouse studentsÕ attention and interest. In the course of reading to learn, students will not only practice strategies (skimming, scanning, careful reading, and guessing for vocabulary recognition), but they will also engage more deeply in the material as informative of Arab and Egyptian society, politics, and culture.

Another important objective is to direct the attention of the student to MSA connectors, which are essential for comprehension. Readers will begin to notice high-frequency words and idiomatic expressions in multiple contexts, reinforcing their retention and ability to then use them in discussion. The grammatical structures of MSA styles occurring in the texts can be reviewed and reinforced.

The texts appear in order from least to greatest linguistic complexity, and to a certain extent, by the topic which they tackle. This makes it easy for instructors to choose the most level-appropriate material to present to their classes.

An experimental copy of the book has been piloted over the last four years at the Arabic Language Institute at the American University in Cairo, with the result that the first 15 lessons have been deemed correct for the high intermediate level and the remaining lessons for advanced students.

The book includes exercises after every five lessons, and all the drills are gathered in an appendix following the text, as well as a glossary for all vocabulary items.