Short Stories in Arabic for Intermediate Learners (Teach Yourself)

Description

An unmissable collection of eight unconventional and captivating short stories for adult and young adult learners. "Olly's top-notch language-learning insights are right in line with the best of what we know from neuroscience and cognitive psychology about how to learn effectively. I love his work - and you will too!" - Barbara Oakley, PhD, Author of New York Times bestseller A Mind for Numbers Short Stories in Arabic for Intermediate Learners has been written especially for students from low-intermediate to intermediate level, designed to give a sense of achievement, a feeling of progress and most importantly - enjoyment! Mapped to B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference, these eight captivating stories are designed to give you a sense of achievement and a feeling of progress when reading. What does this book give you? - Eight stories in a variety of exciting genres, from science fiction and crime to history and thriller - making reading fun, while you learn from a wide range of new vocabulary - Controlled language at your level, including the 1,000 most frequent words, to help you progress confidently - Authentic spoken dialogues, to help you learn conversational expressions and improve your speaking ability - Pleasure! It's much easier to learn a new language when you're having fun, and research shows that if you're enjoying reading in a foreign language, you won't experience the usual feelings of frustration: "It's too hard!" "I don't understand!" - Accessible grammar so you learn new structures naturally, in a stress-free way Carefully curated to make learning a new language easy, these stories include key features that will support and consolidate your progress, including: - A glossary for bolded words in each text - Full plot summary - A bilingual word list - Comprehension questions after each chapter As a result, you will be able to focus on enjoying reading, delighting in your improved range of vocabulary and grasp of the language, without ever feeling overwhelmed or frustrated. From science fiction to fantasy, to crime and thrillers, Short Stories in Arabic for Intermediate Learners will make learning Arabic easy and enjoyable. Review: Great for intermediates - It’s very good especially when you combine it with the audio version. The only thing I would say to improve it would be to make the font size a little bit bigger. Otherwise it’s great for intermediates. Review: The glossary needs reworking - To determine which vocabulary words should go in the glossary, the author should have asked himself: which roots are difficult to find in the standard Hans Weir dictionary, i.e. roots that have several possibilities and take time to look up. Those roots he should have included in his glossary. Some easy roots like chabar in form 4, he includes in it. But he neglects to include some words that are difficult for an Intermediate Arabic learner. The main problem with an "intermediate" reader is rating the words in your stories by levels of difficulty. There are vocabulary lists that define beginning to advanced learners. If you make the read too difficult, you frustrate your customers, and if they are too frustrated, they might curse you (or bless you if they're not). These stories toddle somewhere between frustation and enjoyment. The author might dismiss my criticism by saying that I am not yet qualified to be rated intermediate. But I know that I am. It's not just vocabulary that could use refining, but some notes would have helped to define ambiguous passages, such as the first two words of page 31. Waqa'a has many meanings There are several possibilities to translate the first few words. Give us a note to guide us a little. Not anticipating intermediate problems is a kind of blindness on the part of the author. For my frustration, I rated this book down from five to three stars. In the end, my rating might be higher as my frustration subsides. But who likes to be frustrated when it's not necessary?