Modern Hebrew for Intermediate Students offers high school, college, and independent-study students a state-of-the-art learning experience that takes full advantage of media technology and the World Wide Web. A sequel toModern Hebrew for Beginners, this combination of text- and workbook is designed to be used with web-based audio, visual, and interactive materials to give students multiple learning opportunities suited to a variety of learning styles. The program provides for intense practice of all four language skills: reading, writing, listening comprehension, and conversation.
Esther Raizen provides language training while focusing on a variety of general topics, such as geography and genetics, as well as on topics pertinent to Hebrew culture and Israeli realities. A dedicated website (www.laits.utexas.edu/hebrew/index.html) is rich with interactive tutorials, links to sites of interest that serve as virtual tours, short films based on contemporary Israeli life and society, and numerous interviews that provide listening and discussion opportunities. Raizen emphasizes the spoken language, while also paying attention to various aspects of normative grammar, of the written language, and of cultural elements associated with Hebrew. With this variety of materials and the capacity for continuous updating via the website, teachers and students will find this book endlessly adaptable and highly suitable for self-paced training and a variety of academic settings.
A native of Israel, Esther Raizen is associate dean for research in the College of Liberal Arts and former chair of the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She specializes in Hebrew language pedagogy and has been an early adopter of computer technology for the Hebrew-language classroom and a pioneer in the production of open educational resources for Hebrew-language instruction.