Bite-Size Arabic: Learn to Read and Write Arabic Using the Tiniest Bit of Vocabulary and Grammar by Leston Chandler Buell (that is, by me, Dr. Bulbul) is a new textbook designed for both classroom use and independent learners. The book’s companion website has a (hidden) page for teachers where you can also download sample pages. …

Two introductory textbooks for the Arabic writing system—Alif Baa and Bite-Size Arabic—teach the alphabet gradually, introducing just a few letters per unit. If the teacher covers just one unit per class meeting using these books, we are left with the problem of how to teach communication skills with the remaining classroom time before students have …

In June and July of 2017, I taught a beginning Arabic course for the Academic Language Centre at Leiden University. We used Wightwick and Gaafar’s Mastering Arabic 1 textbook, covering units 1 through 8. I developed some additional materials for use with the first five units of the book, which include reading exercises, dialogues, and …