Softcover

ISBN 10: 0300141319 ISBN 13: 9780300141313

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2011

Arabic for Life takes an intensive, comprehensive approach to beginning Arabic instruction and is specifically tailored to the needs of talented and dedicated students. Unlike the other Arabic textbooks on the market, Arabic for Life is not specifically focused on either grammar or proficiency. Instead, it offers a balanced methodology that combines these goals. Frangieh has created a book that is full of energy and excitement about Arabic language and culture, and it effectively transmits that excitement to students. Arabic for Life offers a dynamic and multidimensional view of the Arab world that incorporates language with Arabic culture and intellectual thought.

The book is accompanied by a DVD with some eighty videos of native speakers reciting the vocalized texts in the book and dozens of audio recordings covering vocabulary and expressions, drills on Arabic sounds and letters, and various exercises and activities.

About the Author:

Bassam Frangieh is professor of Arabic at Claremont-McKenna College. He previously taught at Georgetown, Yale, and the Foreign Service Institute. He is the author of Anthology of Arabic Literature, Culture, and Thought from Pre-Islamic Times to the Present, published by Yale University Press. 

Review:

“Arabic for Life must take the prize as the most attractively produced introduction ever to Arabic language and culture. And the way it combines the walls and doors of learning the language at an elementary level with windows into history, literature and other aspects of culture is splendid.”—Dr. Hilary Kilpatrick, Reviews Editor of Middle Eastern Literatures

 

(Dr. Hilary Kilpatrick)

“The refreshing news for frustrated instructors and students is that Bassam K. Frangieh’s Arabic for Life: a Textbook for Beginning Arabic is an excellent Arabic language textbook that also provides a cultural journey of the Middle East through beautiful and rich Arabic texts....The book is bright, easy to read and fun. The color pictures add a sense of place that enriches the overall learning experience. The DVD is organized consistently with the lessons in the textbook, and its audio/video recordings, exercises and activities help build vocabulary—but equally important it is so alive and fun to watch!...The publication of this book is very timely for beginning students in standard modern Arabic, but intermediate students will also benefit....It is impossible not to admire this serious, comprehensive and beautiful work presented by Frangieh. This book is a must for every student who wants to learn Arabic.”—Suheir Abu Oksa Daoud, Coastal Carolina University, Middle East Online (Suheir Abu Oksa Daoud Middle East Online)