Breakthrough Arabic.

• Author: Bergman, Elizabeth A.

This course in the spoken Arabic of Jordan is a welcome change from teaching materials familiar in American universities. Breakthrough Arabic may be the first truly user-friendly Arabic textbook. It is compact and attractive, professionally designed and illustrated with photographs, line drawings, and reproductions. It takes a reassuring tone and contains detailed instructions. And it has a clearly defined goal: this is "a practical language course."

The "practical" orientation of the course is obvious in its organization and presentation. Each of its fifteen lessons treats a set of communicative functions, which are as general as "directions" and "time," or as specific as "ordering drinks and snacks." New material is introduced in short dialogues accompanied by varied exercises that mimic real-life language use. Grammar explanations are brief and non-technical. A simplified Latin transcription system is used throughout, but an optional segment of each lesson teaches the Arabic alphabet. One benefit of its orientation is that Breakthrough Arabic goes far beyond vocabulary and grammar, the nuts and bolts of language. It presents what amounts to a mini-course in Arabic sociolinguistics in the form of advice on using language in everyday life. A series of vocabulary notes, for examples, introduces the learner to variations in dialect and register. Segments of each lesson called "Did you know" provide more detailed linguistic and sociocultural information. A segment called "Bargaining" (p. 117) not only discusses the why and when of bargaining, but provides a sample dialogue to illustrate the moves of this social game.

Breakthrough Arabic's concentration on the practical is...