Resource Review: WordChamp

I wrote before about how I use Firefox plug-ins to read authentic Arabic material. These plug-ins give you the ability to obtain instant translations. Using a plugin like "qtl", you simply highlight a word you don't know, and a popup window shows you a translation. Instead of spending 10% of your time reading and 90% of your time shuffling through your dictionary, these plug-ins enable you to do the opposite--focus almost entirely on reading, while instantly looking up words you don't know.

Today one of my teachers introduced me to an even more powerful resource: WordChamp. I've only begun to explore this website, but it has one tool I've already fallen in love with: a WordChamp Reader that is far more elegant and powerful than qtl. The screenshot below shows an example:



You can either access the reader from WordChamp's website, or you can install a plug-in toolbar. Either way, the reader functions similar to qtl. If you rest the cursor over a word, a translation will appear in a popup window. WordChamp has several advantages over qtl, however:

(1) In addition to built-in translations, WordChamp supports user translations.

(2) WordChamp has audio. Simply click on the sound icon, and a native speaker will pronounce the word for you.

(3) With a single click, you can add words from an Arabic text to a flashcard list (complete with audio). You can save these flashcard lists and practice them whenever you want using WordChamp's built in flashcard drilling program. The screenshot below shows the flashcard program.



So far, I only have two big critiques of WordChamp:

(1) The flashcard software is fairly inflexible, and requires that users type out their answers.

(2) The WordChamp reader is terrible at recognizing conjugated verbs or words that have any attached letters, i.e. attached pronouns or prepositions.

Despite these limitations, I think WordChamp looks like a promising tool. I'm eager to play with it and see how it will work into my flow of studying the news.

Paired Videos and Transcripts from Al-Jazeera

Thanks to Rob at Arabic Media Shack, who mentioned this resource in a comment on this blog.

Apparently, Al-Jazeera publishes transcripts for all of their programming on their website. This is an awesome resource for Arabic students who are working on their listening skills. Until now, the only other resource I knew that provided transcripts with its videos was SCOLA.

My Arabic isn't strong enough yet to navigate well around Al-Jazeera's website, but Rob provided me some links to get started.

The show What's Behind the News offers 20-minute segments covering top news stories. This link appears to provide all the videos and their transcripts in one place. From this link, you can also access other programs.

Rob also said that popular Al-Jazeera shows are often put on YouTube. He writes, "For example, Yusuf Al-Qaradawi's show Al-Shariah and Al-haya usually has accompanying Youtube feed. See here for example."

Rob also recommends al-Itijah Al-Muakis, although he says the show is not as good as it used to be. This link also contains both videos and transcripts.

RapidRote Files - 1000 Media Words

Elisabeth Kendall compiled a book called The Top 1,000 Words for Understanding Media Arabic. The entire book is simply vocab lists. I was originally skeptical of the value of mere wordlists, but I've memorized about half the words now, and I'm amazed at how frequently the vocabulary turns up in the Arabic news. The selection of words in this book is awesome.

My class at DLI has undertaken a massive project: typing the entire thing into RapidRote and having a native speaker record the pronunciation of each word. We've finally finished, and are pleased to share the results. The sound quality isn't great--I tried two or three different microphones with the same results--but the sound is still very usable. Follow this link: 1000 Media Words for RapidRote. If you use these, please buy the book to support the author.

My strategy for learning these: I drill in RapidRote every evening, then skim articles on BBC Arabic to look for the words I know in context. I try to learn one new list every few days, and spend a lot of time reviewing what I know.