Kalima Wa Nagham: A Textbook for Teaching Arabic, Volume 1

Presenting a new Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language (TAFL) curriculum that can be used in secondary and postsecondary educational settings, Kalima wa Nagham (Volume I) is a textbook that uniquely and simultaneously introduces Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and salient aspects of Educated Spoken Arabic (ESA) to beginning language students. Students who fully utilize this book should be able to develop the different language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and expressing deep cultural knowledge.

Written by Arabic language teaching practitioners and experienced educators who are certified language testers, Volume I of Kalima wa Nagham employs a threaded story that introduces language concepts along with music to enhance vocabulary retention and recall. At the core of the textbook are dialogues that present students and teachers with examples of Arabic grammatical concepts and important cultural aspects, as well as related vocabulary. These are supplemented by drills and activities that can be used in a classroom setting or pursued individually. Dialogues, pronunciation and listening drills, and charts to accompany the lessons are available on the UT Press website. This volume is student-centered in content and methodology, which will enable learners to meet and exceed linguistic and cultural proficiency expectations.

GHAZI M. ABUHAKEMA is Assistant Professor of Arabic and the Director of the Arabic Program at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. He has also taught at Middlebury College, Montclair State University, the National University, and the University of Texas at Austin. NASSER M. ISLEEM is Senior Lecturer at New York University at Abu Dhabi. He has also served as a senior lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a lecturer at Duke University since 2003. RA’ED F. QASEM is a seasoned practitioner in foreign language instruction and foreign language program management with over twenty years of experience in the United States, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates.