Product Description

Most Arabic textbooks concentrate on morphology and syntax, but while these provide the indispensable structural base, students still find there is a wide gap between their theoretical knowledge and their practical ability to write connected prose. This unique textbook concentrates on the connectors (those articles, phrases, or idioms which join words, phrases, clauses, or sentences) in a functional setting with the aim of developing and improving the writing skills of intermediate and advanced students of Arabic as a foreign language. Each lesson of "The Connectors" begins with a presentation of the structures, followed by a sample text and sample sentences, before moving on to a graded series of exercises. The book contains twenty-seven lessons, including five review lessons, and a sample test at the end.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #259421 in Books
• Published on: 1994-09-01
• Original language: Arabic
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 210 pages

Language Notes
Text: Arabic, English

About the Author
Nariman Naili Al-Warraki is Senior Arabic Language Teacher and Director of the Arabic Language Unit of the Arabic Language Institute at the American University in Cairo.

AHMED TAHER HASSANEIN is professor of Arabic studies and chairman of the Arabic Department (Languages and Translation) at Misr University for Science and Technology, and is the author of numerous books on Arabic grammar and style.

Customer Reviews

A good review text for someone who has studied Arabic before
This book is organized into 27 lessons, each covering some 3-8 connectors. By connectors, the authors mean the various particles that serve to conjoin two or more verbs, nouns, phrases, clauses, sentences, etc. Some simple examples in English would be "and", "but", and "or". Some more complex examples are "as for", "in order to", "provided that", and "in connection with". The premise of this book is that such constructions aren't covered adequately in most Arabic-language textbooks. I agree, but I would point out that this is also true of other languages besides Arabic. In fact, I believe a similar book for the English language would be quite a useful reference for students and writers.

This book is an excellent review text for someone who has studied Arabic before whether their level is advanced or intermediate. If you've ever had the frustrating experience of understanding almost every word in a paragraph yet still not comprehending the overall meaning, this book will do wonders for your reading comprehension.

Beginners could also benefit from a book of this type if the examples were translated, which they are not. This is unfortunate and should perhaps be remedied in a future edition.

Beyond the grammar book...
Ths is the most useful book I've found yet for the intermediate or advanced student of Arabic. While a grammar book teaches you all about morphology and is usually sparse on details of syntax, this book will lead you towards the goal of writing idiomatic modern standard Arabic. But to the real beginner, it will seem daunting and over-specialized - it did to me when I first saw it.

An excellent review of intermediate/advanced grammar
This is an excellent textbook for those students of Modern Standard Arabic who have studied a year or two of the language and would like to improve upon their writing skills. It is particularly useful in a traditional university classroom setting and in fact was the textbook that I used during my third year of Arabic study in graduate school. Organized into 27 short lessons that focus on specific connectors, each lesson includes the following: a presentation of the connectors and their meanings; a selection from an Arabic text (often authentic) that includes the connectors that the lesson focuses on; a translation of the text into English; additional grammatical lessons and linguistic remarks to further clarify the lesson; and numerous drills to challenge the reader. Although this book is very useful for students of Arabic grammar, it is not well suited for those interested in improving their reading skills and/or increasing their vocabulary.