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The complete course in 3 volumes. Matching black and white titled pale green wraps 16x23cm. Printed in Beirut by the Middle East Export Press (Basic, Conversational) and Catholic Press (Spoken). 142, (2); 159; viii, 159, (1)pp. The Basic covers are very good, marked to the back, the interiors near fine except for working notes penciled to the first few pages; Spoken covers very good with previous owner's name to the front, and interiors near fine except for ink annotation to a couple of pages; and Conversational covers good, numbered in crayon to the front, interiors near fine with some pencil marks. These are undated, but the Catholic Press printer's code states 1956. Between them, they mark a major advance in Aramco's Arabic language training from the pocket sized phrasebooks introduced in the mid-1940s to early 1950s. (Alongside this were separate works on colloquial, newspaper, and basic written Arabic). This course was first prepared by Aramco's Training Department for its Foreign Service Training Center located at Riverhead, Long Island before moving to Sidon. It was "subjected to the test of use, revised and improved over a period of several years", and accompanied in the classroom by records (Spoken Arabic Introduction). BASIC ARABIC: This introduces new employees to spoken Gulf Arabic: "It is the basis of the intensive Arabic course offered at Aramco's Sidon Training Center in Lebanon. Others who have had a different introduction to Arabic will find it useful because of its coverage of typical everyday situations". It contains 50 Units to be practiced as live dialogue for maximum effect (Introduction). These are untitled but to give a couple of examples they relate to heading into town to see a film (Unit 6), a discussion of the day's news referencing Aramco's literacy teaching to local staff (Unit 17), the whereabouts and wellbeing of Abdulla (Unit 18), locating a driver and readying a car for a tour of the pipeline (Unit 21), signing in and out at the Main Gate (Unit 26), organising a crew to work on cylinders (Unit 42), repairing a ship's engine at the pier (Unit 43), etc. Also included is a Grammar, Vocabulary, Adjectives, and colours. Once mastered, students are urged to progress to "Spoken Arabic". SPOKEN ARABIC: This contains 12 themed Units for greetings and general phrases; on the job and asking directions; an interview; in the dining hall; a new employee; in the market; truck breakdown and car trouble; laying a water pipe (2 Units); the garage; a new houseboy; and seeing Dhahran. The latter takes in a tour of the machine shop, club house, movie theatre, swimming pool and dance hall, the Saudi camp (with its dorms, barastis and tents), the mosque, and oil stabiliser. Appendices cover the use of Arabic in training Saudi employees, and using a fire extinguisher. Students are directed from here to "Conversational Arabic", or "Basic Arabic" if not done already. CONVERSATIONAL ARABIC: In 2 parts this opens with 10 common everyday Conversations: "Only by imitating minutely the pronunciation, intonation and stress patterns of a native speaker can these conversations come alive and be meaningful". The second and larger part focuses on Constructions "that illustrate grammar and are far more useful than any set of grammatical rules. If you have worked carefully through the grammatical sketches in Basic Arabic and Spoken Arabic you will find that study of the Constructions will rapidly broaden your insight into the grammar of spoken Arabic". This was the most advanced and final part with students encouraged from here to "Try out your Arabic every chance you get. And if your opportunities aren't frequent enough, you will have to go out of your way to make new opportunities" (Introduction).
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