Online Resource: Aswaat Arabiyya
One of the best online resources I've found for practicing listening is Aswaat Arabiyya ("Arabic Voices"), produced by the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas. The site contains dozens of free, high-quality video clips, categorized by skill level.
That last part is crucial; it's easy to find authentic material online, such as streaming Arabic TV channels, but most of those materials are too difficult for a new Arabic student. I tried listening to some of these advanced materials early on in my course, just to get an ear for the language, but I ultimately decided that I was getting very little return listening to passages where I didn't know 90% of the vocabulary.
With Aswaat Arabiyya, you can listen to passages in your own skill level. You won't know everything, but as you grow in the language, you'll know enough to understand a good amount of each passage. I can return to the same clips over and over as the weeks go by, and find myself understanding more.
My only critique of this website is its technological problems. I don't like the video player it uses. If you pause and try rewind a clip--something a student will frequently do--the player will sometimes "break" and go silent and/or black, until you reload a different clip. Also, according to information on the website, each clip is supposed to have accompanying pre-listening and post-listening activities and questions, but the pane where these are supposed to appear is blank.
Despite those shortfalls, this is still a good resource every Arabic student should check out.
That last part is crucial; it's easy to find authentic material online, such as streaming Arabic TV channels, but most of those materials are too difficult for a new Arabic student. I tried listening to some of these advanced materials early on in my course, just to get an ear for the language, but I ultimately decided that I was getting very little return listening to passages where I didn't know 90% of the vocabulary.
With Aswaat Arabiyya, you can listen to passages in your own skill level. You won't know everything, but as you grow in the language, you'll know enough to understand a good amount of each passage. I can return to the same clips over and over as the weeks go by, and find myself understanding more.
My only critique of this website is its technological problems. I don't like the video player it uses. If you pause and try rewind a clip--something a student will frequently do--the player will sometimes "break" and go silent and/or black, until you reload a different clip. Also, according to information on the website, each clip is supposed to have accompanying pre-listening and post-listening activities and questions, but the pane where these are supposed to appear is blank.
Despite those shortfalls, this is still a good resource every Arabic student should check out.
posted by Reach 364 at
6:38 AM
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