Hello, my name is Dr. Imran Alawiye and I am here to speak
about the ‘Gateway to Arabic’ series of books and supporting
materials that I have written. The ‘Gateway to Arabic’ course has been designed
to teach Modern Standard Arabic (that is to say, al-lughatul-‘arabiyyatul-fusha
to use the Arabic terminology) to learners from a non-Arabic-speaking
environment across a wide age range. It assumes no previous knowledge of the
Arabic language. The course is based on a set of workbooks that gradually build
up the students’ knowledge of Arabic vocabulary and grammar, underpinned by
supporting exercises as well as passages of dialogue to encourage the
development of conversational skills. At the moment, there are nine books in
the ‘Gateway to Arabic’ series, and I shall now present an overview of each
title.
Gateway to Arabic Book One
This book is basically a foundation course in reading and
writing the Arabic script. The first thing you will notice is that it is
oriented from right to left to accustom the learner to the idea that Arabic
books are read in a manner that they might perceive as being back to front. All
of the titles in this series are set out in this way. The key objective of this
book is that, by the end, students would have acquired a sufficient grounding
to be able to read vocalised Arabic text. It does not, however, aim to teach
any vocabulary or grammar at this stage: that begins in book two of the series.
Gateway to Arabic Book Two
Gateway to Arabic Book Two marks the beginning of formal
grammar and vocabulary learning and is suited to learners from the age of seven
upwards. The book concentrates on
non-verbal sentences and covers a wide range of useful, everyday vocabulary.
Explanations of grammar points are kept to a minimum as far as possible at this
stage, so as not to daunt younger learners. As with the rest of the ‘Gateway’
series, all Arabic text is fully vocalised throughout.
Gateway
to Arabic Extension Book One
The third book in the series is called ‘Gateway to Arabic
Extension Book One’, though perhaps it should be regarded as ‘Book 2B’ of the
series. It serves to soften the transition from the non-verbal sentences of
Book 2 to the more grammatically challenging verbal sentences of Book Three,
which would be of particular benefit to children of late primary and early
secondary school age (9 to 12). Although the book does touch upon some simple
verbs, it is not grammar intensive. Rather, it is more tailored to classroom
games and activities and it reinforces and builds upon the vocabulary and
sentence structures taught in Book Two. The introduction of new sentence
patterns such as, ‘I have x but I don’t have y’, ‘I like x but I don’t like y’,
‘Who is this and what is he doing?’ gives the teacher scope to explore a
variety of subject areas and vocabulary with the class. The introduction of
passages of dialogue provides plenty of scope for role playing activities.
Gateway to Arabic
Book Three
The materials in Book Three and upwards are best used with
secondary school students or above – I would suggest a minimum age of eleven
upwards. The primary objective of Book Three is to introduce students to
regular triliteral first form Arabic verbs in the past and present tenses. Other areas covered by this book include the attached and
detached pronouns, comparative and superlative adjectives, cardinal numbers up
to nineteen and ordinal numbers from one to ten; and the construction and use
of the imperative. One of the key new areas of vocabulary introduced is the
school timetable.
Gateway
to Arabic Book Four
This fourth book in the series continues to build upon the
students’ knowledge of first form Arabic verbs by introducing them to hollow
verbs, double root letter verbs, verbs with a weak first root letter and verbs
with a medial or final hamza. An exposition of the rules governing the hamza is
also given. The cardinal numbers from 20 to 99 are taught as well as the
ordinal numbers up to nineteen, together with the rules governing their use. Other subject areas covered include family relationships,
domestic life, buying train tickets and asking for and giving directions.
Gateway to Arabic
Book Five
In the
fifth book of the series, the key grammar area covered are the first form
defective verbs – that is to say those verbs with a weak first, middle or final
root letter, or more than one weak root letter – in the past and present tenses
as well as the forms of the imperative. Cardinal numbers from 1 to 1000 and beyond are also taught, with
practical exercises such as writing out prices in full, using numbers with the
four basic mathematical operations, and talking about temperature, what year it
is, and one’s age.
Gateway to Arabic
Book Six
Book Six
completes the teaching of form one triliteral verbs by introducing the student
to the subjunctive and jussive verb moods, together with the particles
associated with them. It
introduces the student to the concept of the derived forms of trilateral verbs,
focusing in particular on forms two, three and four. These are taught in the
past and present tenses, the imperative, the subjunctive and jussive moods, as
well as touching on the treatment of irregular verbs (i.e. those that have
doubled root letters, or one or more weak root letter).
Gateway to Arabic
Book Seven
The
main area of grammar taught in Book Seven is the conjugation of the verb forms from five to ten, again with
template support as well as written exercises. The
central theme of the book concerns travel and includes passages of dialogue on
areas such as: discussing where to go on holiday, getting ready to land,
dealing with missing luggage, booking a hotel room, taking a taxi and checking
in at the hotel reception desk. As always, detailed vocabulary boxes are
included to help the student to famililarise him or herself with new words and
expressions.
Gateway to Arabic
Handwriting Book
In addition to the grammar books already outlined, there is
the ‘Gateway to Arabic Handwriting Book’. The style of Arabic script taught
from Book One onwards is the naskh form. However, in recognition of the fact
that many students may wish to be able to write more quickly, especially as
their knowledge of the language becomes more advanced, we have produced this
workbook that teaches the ruq’ah style of handwriting alongside the naskh
script.
Further books in the series are planned to build upon and
extend the students’ knowledge of Arabic grammar and vocabulary.
