Ahlan wa Sahlan: Functional Modern Standard Arabic for Beginners

by Mahdi Alosh

This textbook is intended to teach Modern Standard Arabic at the university level to speakers of English. The text presents Modern Standard Arabic functionally, but also instructs the student by way of an engaging storyline that presents Arabic culture in a contemporary setting. Designed for use in the classroom, the text would also work very well for the self-learner. Alosh uses state of the art language acquisition theory.

Genres: College, Language

616 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2000

About the author

Dr. Mahdi Alosh is Professor of Arabic and Applied Linguistics and Associate Dean at the United States Military Academy. He has authored several articles, books, and textbooks.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have taken university level courses in Spanish, Japanese, and Korean before beginning Arabic, and have encountered many language textbooks of varying quality. But I won't get into those here. I only mention them to give some context to the statement that Ahlan wa Sahlan is the WORST language textbook I have ever encountered.

Vocab lists can be found at the end of every chapter, and are disproportionately short to the amount of unknown vocab encountered throughout the chapter in the form of example sentences (which are Not given English translations, so if you don't understand something the entire sentence is useless to you, there is no way to contextually assign meaning to words you don't know). Grammar is presented using grammar terms that most native English speakers would only learn if pursuing a teaching degree, such as "nominative case." The textbook is incredibly explanation heavy and light on examples, with, again, translations being totally absent.

Don't bother trying to self study with this trash heap. I would even go as far as to say that if your university course lists this text, it is going to be painful even with teacher assistance. I'm sure there are instructors out there who can effectively teach this book but mine is not one.

[Lara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not entirely sure how to rate this book on it's own...I've been meaning to go back and take a look at it now that I'm no longer taking a class, but as I'm currently in the midst of learning Japanese, I just haven't done it yet. The Arabic class I took was pretty terrible though, and, at the time, I didn't feel like the book really helped me out a whole lot, although the accompanying CD was useful for pronunciation, I guess. Honestly though, the main problem with the class was the teacher, who would yell at us for not knowing things she hadn't yet taught us and who spent inordinate amounts of time working with the several people in the class who obviously weren't actually interested in learning in the first place. So yeah, none of us got very far with it. Maybe I'll bump my rating up at a later date, if I ever get around to reviewing the text in making a further attempt to learn Arabic; at this point though, I'll admit that my blah opinion of this book might just be a result of my blah experience in class and not through any fault of its own.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Al-Kitaab kicks this book right in the tain't. Although, that said, this book is probably more comprehensive.

[Alexandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a terrible book. It's organized in the most asinine way, the graphics are photocopy quality, and there are misspellings and typos throughout (in Arabic and English).

[Skeetor · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book for beginners. The CD is extremely helpful with correct pronunciation.

[Emmanuel Rovithis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good beginner text for learning Arabic - a mix of vocabulary, grammar rules, and short stories.

[Charlie Baker]

very educational book 10/10 would recommended it