arabicsource.net - Students Collaborating to Learn the Arabic Language

This blog has moved

2010-04-27T21:40:00.001-07:00

This blog is now located at http://blog.arabicsource.net/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://blog.arabicsource.net/feeds/posts/default.

Checking In

2009-12-31T10:05:00.000-08:00

It's been months since I've updated this blog... honestly, I usually don't even remember that it exists. I stopped maintaining it when I left DLI. Every month or two, though, I get an e-mail from somebody who found and appreciates the site. Despite not being updated in months, it still gets 20+ visits a day. A lot of people find my blog through Google, by searching for Arabic learning resources. All this evidence suggests that people are hungry for quality information on learning Arabic, which we all know are hard to come by.

I can't make any promises, but I will try to write some new posts in the near future. I've learned a tremendous amount of Arabic since moving to Jordan, and I've picked up new strategies and study techniques. I have some things to share. However, I also have two kids, am working on a master's degree, am working on my own Arabic, and am maintaining my Building Peace blog, so life is busy. But I will try.

In the meantime, here is an update on where I'm at with my Arabic.

My 50-week DLI Arabic program was scheduled to graduate in June, but I wanted to move to Jordan as soon as possible so I could get to work on the Jordanian dialect. Learning to understand and speak the dialect was far more important to me than watching Al Jazeera or acing the DLPT. So I arranged for an administrative disenrollment from DLI in mid-April and PCS'd to Jordan, well before my graduation date. Nonetheless, before leaving at the 42-week point, I managed to pass the DLPT with a 2+ in reading, a 2 in listening, and a 2 in OPI. I say that only to illustrate that learning this language is doable, although it is hard and takes a lot of work.

Once in Jordan, I focused almost entirely on dialect. I tried three different language schools before finding one I really liked. One school was mediocre, and one school was so bad that I quit after 2 days--even though they refused to give me my money back. The third school was fantastic, so I spent all fall studying there 4 hours a day. The lesson here is to take control of your learning and shop around, if at all possible. If your school or teacher uses bad teaching methodology, you'll expend a tremendous amount of time and energy with very little return (unfortunately, in my experience, much of DLI's program falls into this category). I also found a great private tutor. We meet every week and focus on speaking. My dialect has improved substantially; I can speak dialect much better than I can speak MSA now.

I am continuing to work on my MSA. My single favorite strategy for reading comprehension is to read BBC or Al-Jazeera online, with the assistance of both WordChamp and a FireFox plugin called Babelfish. I read as much as I can, and when I see a word I don't know, I just double-click it and Babelfish gives me an instant translation using Google's translation engine. If I want to see the short voweling or hear it pronounced, I use Wordchamp. In my view, this is so much more beneficial than what I call the "dictionary drill" style of homework. When I was at DLI, we consistently had reading homework that was way above our level. I spent most of my study time leafing through the dictionary looking up words I didn't know, rather than cementing the words I did know. I got zero benefit from these hours of painful work. When I read online and use the electronic tools, I can spend 90% of my time in the text and only 10% of my time in the dictionary. I can also copy-paste new words right into an Excel spreadsheet, which I can then import into either RapidRote or my custom SimpleFlash program. I started using this technique around the end of Semester I at DLI, and I've never stopped. My comprehension of news surged. By the time I took the DLPT, I think my understanding of the news was well above that of my classmates. Now I can read political and economic news stories almost fluently, and am trying to gradually branch out into other topics.

I've found that my listening comprehension has improved substantially because of my reading ability. I've learned a simple lesson: if I can't understand it when I read it, there isn't any chance that I'll understand it when I hear it. The corollary is that if I can read it well, and I know all the words, I will probably understand it when I hear it. My listening right now is like a picture coming in and out of focus... listening is still hard for me, but I have long stretches (at least on some subjects) of almost 100% comprehension.

In other news, I have continued working on some software applications to help with Arabic. I wrote a flashcard program for the Android operating system, and have ported all the DLI vocabulary over. I can now carry audio flashcards for all my vocab on my mobile phone. The program isn't ready for general release yet, but if I can ever find the time to put the finishing touches on it, I'll release it here. I'm also still working on a conjugation drilling program for the PC.

That's all for now. I'll try to write more soon.

Automatic Conjugation Generator

2009-07-04T23:00:00.001-07:00

Arab Techies, a gathering of young innovative Arabs, has created an open source software project that automatically generates verb conjugations if you supply the root.

Check it out here. Just type in the root you want. No more need to lug around 501 Arabic Verbs.

Sorry for the Downtime

2009-06-30T10:07:00.001-07:00

This website suffered a bizarre technical problem that escaped my notice until a few days ago. I apologize for the downtime, but everything should be fixed now. If anyone encounters problems, please let me know.

Article on Machine Translation

2009-05-24T10:01:00.001-07:00

Interesting article on the status of machine translation from The Washington Post today: Tongue in Check.

RapidRote File: Middle East Flags and Capitals

2009-04-07T07:02:00.000-07:00

Here is a RapidRote list courtesy of another DLI class, with Middle East countries, capitals, and flags. Unfortuntely I can't convert it to Excel for our non-RapidRote students, because it relies on pictures. Enjoy, and thanks to the class that provided this!

Middle East Flags.b4u

Arabic Verb Conjugations Online

2009-04-04T20:59:00.000-07:00

New resource I discovered tonight... a website with full conjugations for 955 Arabic verbs. Visit Logos Universal Conjugator. The layout takes some getting used to, because the tables are labeled in Arabic and there are no pronouns printed beside the conjugations. But if you already have an idea how to conjugate and can find your way around, this is a good way to look up specific verbs.

Resource for Qur'anic/Religious Vocab

2009-03-23T06:54:00.000-07:00

Want to learn vocabulary for the Qur'an or for religion in general? Check out www.understandquran.com. The site has some excellent resources, such as vocabulary lists and word-by-word translations of the Qur'an. The presentation quality is fantastic. Here is one screenshot of a typical wordlist:

Arabic Tips from Students Who Succeeded

2009-03-23T06:45:00.001-07:00

These documents contain tips from two students who recently completed the Arabic Basic Course at DLI. I don't know their DLPT scores, but their class was one of the most successful in recent history. I think their advice is very good. Some of my classmates thought the tone of the first page was a little pretentious, but I loved it. It has a clear message: excelling in Arabic requires hard work. There is no substitute for that. If you put in the time and the work, you will learn.

Where is this Site Going?

2009-03-20T07:29:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have not written anything in... well, a very long time. I am moving to Jordan very soon, so I'm spending almost all my time now preparing for the DLPT, studying the Jordanian dialect, and preparing for the move. That hasn't left much time to keep this site up-to-date. However, I'm pleased to hear from visitors that the resources here are helping them with their Arabic.

I do still have plans for the site. I am hoping to add a message board and wiki soon, so Arabic students can interact here and share resources. Also, once I'm through the DLPT, I plan to share some more of my own personal lessons learned on how to approach Arabic. I have a couple programming projects as well, which I hope to complete once I'm in Jordan. The most relevant one for my visitors here is an Arabic verb conjugation trainer. Users pick the verbs and the tenses they want to practice, and the software drills them. An early prototype picture is below:

I would like to encourage my visitors to get involved. All of us know that learning Arabic is hard--especially those of us who study in the intensive program at DLI. I want to make this website the ultimate companion for an Arabic student; I want to equip every student with the best ideas and resources to succeed at learning the language. I can't do that by myself. Here are some ways you can help:

1. Create topical RapidRote lists. Type up a list of good words, voice them with a native speaker, and e-mail them to me. I'll post them on the site, and for those who don't have access to RapidRote, I'll also post the vocab lists as Excel files. There are a lot of gaps in the vocab lists in the DLI curriculum. Students can create lists to help close those gaps.

2. I need help typing up verb conjugations. My verb trainer is almost fully functional, but I need to do a tremendous amount of data entry, typing up voweled conjugations of all the verbs I want to include. I also need a native speaker to create an audio recording of every conjugation. I would be thrilled if I could crowdsource some of this work to my visitors. If you're interested in helping, please e-mail me and I will tell you what to do.

3. Find authentic websites pertinent to each chapter of the DLI curriculum. I want to create a page with links to authentic resources relevant to each chapter. For example, the chapter on air travel would have links to various airport websites or ticket agencies. The chapter on natural disasters would have links to Arabic NGOs. You get the idea.

How to Improve Language Training? Put DLI Curriculum on the Net for Free.

2009-02-21T09:42:00.000-08:00

NOTE: This is cross-posted from my personal blog.

The Case for Open Information

When it comes to disseminating information, the US government and military generally share as little as possible. Information is often overclassified and soldiers are taught to consider even unclassified information "sensitive." The rule of thumb is to not publicly share information unless you have a compelling reason to do so. This makes good sense when operational security is involved. Corporate America has traditionally followed the same rules; companies generally keep a close hold on information for fear of exploitation by competitors. Many business and government leaders don't even question this principle. They take it for granted.

But in our increasingly open information society this paradigm is changing. The book Wikinomics explains that many companies are reaping profits by opening themselves and their products up to society as much as possible. As proprietary information opens up, consumers get more involved, knitting together strong communities around products. R&D work is outsourced--for free--to the crowd. Witness Firefox and Google's Android phone, which are built around active user development. This principle of maximum openness is even extending into universities. MIT has an Opencourseware project that puts materials from 1800 of its courses online for free.

Opening Up DLI

This all got me thinking. What if the Defense Language Institute (DLI) put all of its curriculum online for free? No registration necessary. No fees. Just an elegant website that offers fast, easy access to materials for learning any of the 23 languages that DLI teaches.

Consider with me. DLI has more than 1,100 language teachers, most of whom are native speakers. It has the largest Arabic and Chinese programs in the country and is one of the only schools dedicated to teaching rarer strategic languages like Pashto and Urdu. Curriculum is largely developed in-house. DLI is a government organization, so it does not need to sell its curriculum materials for profit. In fact, its curriculum materials (at least in the Arabic schools, where I study) are not used in any organization outside DLI. The scale of DLI courses are staggering. My Arabic curriculum is eleven volumes, including hundreds of authentic material passages and high-quality MP3s. The curriculum is still in validation and has some problems, but it's the most extensive Arabic curriculum I've ever seen or heard of. I can't speak for other languages, but I imagine other language departments have equally impressive programs.

Now imagine we put all this online for free. What benefits would we reap?

First, we would put a wealth of resources in the hands of independent language learners. When a soldier wants to learn a language now, he generally can get only one resource from the military: a Rosetta Stone license. As I've written before, Rosetta Stone is a good supplement but it's a terrible standalone language tool. Licenses are also expensive and the military only purchases a limited number of them. Beyond that, a student is on his own. Now imagine that any student in the world could log on to a single website and find thousands of pages of free resources. Imagine the effect this would have on independent learners.

Second, a public release of DLI curriculum would improve language education programs in other universities. It would put more resources and tools in the hands of educators developing their own language training programs--particularly for languages where resources are scarce.

Third, releasing DLI curriculum might develop a larger pool of foreign language speakers outside the military. Independent learners or university students would have more resources available to learn from. Students of strategic languages like Arabic, Chinese, or Pashto are likely to have an interest in the military or intelligence agencies anyway, so the government could expect to hire many of these students in the future. By becoming one of the world's biggest providers of foreign language materials, DLI would also build a good relationship with internationally-minded students in a variety of communities.

Fourth, it would spread the benefits of American tax dollars across the entire country. This is a good thing for its own sake. You can't do that with many military technologies, but when you can, the benefits can be immense. Consider the benefits the US military brought to the world with GPS.

What are the obstacles to such an ambitious project? Profit is not an issue. DLI does not sell its courseware. OPSEC is not an issue; nothing sensitive is being discussed. Yes, we study vocabulary for military topics, but I highly doubt Al-Qaeda will care that I learned the words for "division" and "tank" in chapter 5 of my curriculum. The biggest obstacle I see is a failure of vision. A public release of curriculum that took thousands of hours and millions of dollars to develop will strike most people as absurd. Building the necessary bureaucratic momentum will be extremely difficult. Someone at the top of the chain will have to embrace the vision and fight to sell it.

Publicly releasing the DLI's foreign language materials would be an extraordinary investment in American language education. Our civil and military leaders have been talking for years about creative ways to increase the linguistic competency of our force. This would be one easy, actionable way to do that.

Resource Review: Sennheiser RS120 Wireless Headphones

2009-01-30T15:26:00.000-08:00

I realized recently that I need to spend a lot more time listening to Arabic. When I began the language my motivation to listen wasn't all that high, because I could hardly understand anything. Now that I'm seven months into the course, my vocabulary is big enough to make listening really worthwhile. I've also found resources that I genuinely enjoy listening to, like BBC Arabic radio and Al-Jazeera Lil-Atfal. I would be happy to spend a couple hours an evening now just watching TV or listening to the radio. However, as a husband and a father of a six-month old, it's hard to sit still long enough in the evenings to study much of anything. My wife, who is striving to learn Arabic as a full-time mom, has it even harder.

So to make our study habits more efficient, I decided to buy these headphones for my wife for her birthday... and then dutifully tested them out. I love them so far. We plug the base into a computer, stereo or iPod, and then we are free to roam around the house... changing diapers, doing dishes, playing with our tifl, all while studying al-lugha al-arabiyya. Yes, we're dorks... but it works.

Only complaint is some minor static at times, but nothing showstopping. You can read the rest of the details in the Amazon reviews.

Sound & Script RapidRote Files (DLI Students)

2009-01-30T15:19:00.000-08:00

When my class began at DLI, we found no sign that RapidRote files existed for the Sound & Script unit (the first unit of the curriculum). We put these RapidRote lists together and had a native speaker record them. Here are the files:

Sound & Script Files

My New Favorite Listening Resource: Al-Jazeera's Children's Channel Website

2009-01-09T21:27:00.000-08:00

I'm consistently amazed at how much wealth DLI fails to share with its students. Six months into my Arabic course, I'm still discovering new resources that I should have learned about on Day 1. Today my MLI introduced our class to my new favorite resource: www.jcctv.net, the website of Al-Jazeera's children's channel.

I've watched quite a bit of Al-Jazeera Lal-Atfal in the past on 3arabtv. As a new student I liked watching cartoons that used basic, highly repetitive vocabulary, but the channel had disadvantages. The sound quality on 3arabtv isn't superb, and many cartoon characters speak in high squeaky voices.

But the Al-Jazeera Lal-Atfal website is superb. It contains dozens of high-quality videos with crisp, articulate Arabic speakers. Our class is in currently in a Sports, Hobbies & Entertainment unit, so today our MLI directed us to a section of the website where we could find dozens of episodes of an educational TV show about sports. Each episode featured one or two different sports. Our MLI said the website contains lots of other useful educational programming, such as Science & Technology. I'm looking forward to digging into the site more.

Paired Videos and Transcripts from CNN

2009-01-08T15:58:00.001-08:00

I posted a few weeks ago that Al-Jazeera posts both videos and accompanying transcripts online. I learned today that CNN does the same thing with short news clips. If you visit arabic.cnn.com and go to the Videos link, you'll find numerous short clips with accompanying transcripts.

For those of you (like me) who aren't quite up to the level of full Al-Jazeera TV programs yet, these short clips are an excellent resource.

Resource: LingNet Materials

2009-01-07T09:48:00.000-08:00

LingNet is a website produced and maintained by the Foreign Language Center at DLI. It's packed full of resources. I haven't played with it too much, but I like what I've seen.

Here are a few of the resources I've tried:

phone.lingnet.org has lengthy telephone conversations in dialect. This is one of the best resources I've found for working on my Levantine.

gloss.lingnet.org has a wide selection of passages to practice listening/reading comprehension.

arabicaccents.lingnet.org has 20+ passages. Each passage has ten different recordings in MSA, spoken by Arabs from different regions of the Arab world. This tool allows you to compare and recognize Arabic accents.

Resource Review: 3arabTV

2009-01-03T18:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I checked my web stats and was surprised to see how many users stumbled across this site while Googling for help with the Arabic language or Arabic DLPT5. I know as well as anybody how much help Arabic students need, and how few quality resources are available, which is why I started this site. I wish I had more to offer, but I will keep providing what I can.

One extremely helpful Internet resource is 3arabTV, a website that gives users free streaming access to 60+ Arabic TV channels, as well as Arabic radio stations and movies. I use the site regularly to watch Al Jazeera and listen to BBC Arabic radio. Earlier in the course, when I didn't yet feel ready to tackle the news, I spent a lot of time watching the Al Jazeera Children's Network. I'll probably go crazy if I hear the Berenstein Bears' theme song one more time, but the show provided (and still provides) great listening practice for beginner or intermediate Arabic students. The vocab was very practical, covering topics like families, activities, animals, etc. Right now the Arabic BBC is my channel of choice, because it uses very straightforward vocabulary, uses very little idiomatic language, and has very articulate journalists. As my comprehension improves, I'm mixing in more authentic sources like Al Jazeera.

Whatever your preference, you'll find it on 3arabTV. It includes news channels from most countries in the Arab world, movie channels, music videos channels, and more. The quality is not always that great--the video is a little pixelated and some of the channels have a hollow, distant sound--but the Arabic is definitely clear enough to use for listening practice.

Because the video is streaming, there's no immediate way to record it. However, you can buy a variety of inexpensive programs that will allow you to record. I spent $50 to buy Replay AV, a simple program that allows you to record any streaming media. You can record manually, or you can program the software to record scheduled programs at fixed times. With 3arabtv and Replay, I've built up a good collection of clips for listening practice.

Resource Review: WordChamp

2008-12-18T14:15:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-07T14:24:00.001-08:00

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

2008-12-02T18:41:00.000-08:00

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.

DLPT5 Familiarization Guide

2008-11-23T07:30:00.000-08:00

I was surfing for Arabic resources this morning when I discovered this resource on the DLI website:

MSA DLPT5 Familiarization Guide

I've only skimmed it, but it looks like a good resource. It's 50+ pages and includes information on the test format and content, screenshots of what the test looks like, and a number of sample questions.

Introducing SimpleFlash

2008-11-22T20:59:00.000-08:00

I generally use RapidRote for learning vocab, but it's missing a lot of features I would like. One feature I really want is the ability to simply watch words flash by on the screen... something like a screen saver. I want this for the following reasons: (1) My wife and I have a baby, so I spend a lot of time each day with no hands available (2) It would be nice to let vocab drills run in the background while I'm doing other work on my computer and (3) There is a lot of wasted time in the classroom when my mind isn't actively engaged with Arabic. I want a discreet way to study vocab during those times. Since I have a laptop in front of me all day, an automatic flashcard program would provide that.

Because I'm obsessive about undertaking new projects, and because I'm a hobbyist programmer, I went ahead and wrote a program myself. I call it SimpleFlash. It's quick. It's dirty. It has few bells and whistles. But it does exactly what I intended it to: it cycles through flashcards at a pace you determine, while you kick back and watch.

You can download SimpleFlash at this link. Note that you need Microsoft NET 3.0 or 3.5 installed for the program to run. This is usually included automatically with windows updates, but if your computer doesn't have it (you'll know if SimpleFlash gives you an error message when you start), you can download .NET 3.5 at this link. What is .NET? It's a sort of interface between a software application and Windows that does a lot of the hard, under-the-hood work. A lot of newer programs require it, so it's worth your time to download.

So how does SimpleFlash work? It's easy. Put your vocab words in Excel: one language in column A, one language in Column B. You can optionally put category names in Column C. Load the spreadsheet in SimpleFlash, and it will start cycling through your flashcards. There is a "Help" icon on the toolbar that gives you a few more details.

Enjoy. Let me know what you think, and let me know if you encounter any bugs.

How Firefox Can Help You Learn Arabic

2008-11-21T21:32:00.000-08:00

I'm finally at a point in my Arabic studies where I feel I can engage with the news. I have enough vocabulary that I can muddle through many articles, at least on websites that use crisp, concise MSA like BBC Arabic. I'm still experimenting with strategies to build my reading fluency, but I've developed a pretty good workflow. It makes good use of some powerful, free technology available online.

ONLINE LANGUAGE TOOLS I USE

FireFox is my web browser of choice. It is open-source, which means of thousands of people are involved in its development and evolution. Hundreds of powerful plugins are available, which allow users to extend the browser to perform various tasks. I use two plugins to help with my Arabic.

Quick Translate (qtl) is helpful for translating individual words. If you highlight an Arabic word with your mouse, a popup appears with a translation. The quality of these translations varies--qtl is dumb about recognizing conjugations, and you have to be careful not to select attached prepositions or pronouns--but it works much of the time, providing me instantaneous feedback on words I don't know. qtl has other features I haven't explored. It has a clunky interface, so I limit its use to single-word translations.

FoxLingo installs a language toolbar in FireFox, which is tied to most major translation websites on the Internet. It has two main functions. You can click the "Webpage" button, then select the translation engine of your choice to translate the entire page. Depending on your preference, it will either open in a separate tab or a separate window. You can also highlight text and click the "Text" button to translate the selection. The translation also appears in a separate tab or window.

MY NEWS WORKFLOW:

At this point, my goal when I read the news is not to translate an article 100% accurately, but to look for main ideas, identify words I know in authentic contexts, and maybe pick up some high-frequency vocabulary along the way. I work mainly with BBC because it's easier to understand than Arab media, although I plan to progress to Arab media as I build my fluency.

It's important to understand this context. I would not use these tools if my goal was a 100% accurate translation, or if I was doing most homework assignments. These tools should never be used to circumvent real learning. But used in this specific context--getting immediate, quick-and-dirty feedback while focusing on my broader reading comprehension--I think these tools are powerful.

Here's how I tackle a news article. I pick an article that looks interesting, then use FoxLingo to open a parallel English translation in a separate window. I work through the article a paragraph at a time. I initially read each paragraph without any technology aids, just to see what I can understand. After that, I make a second pass through the paragraph, making generous use of qtl to look up individual words I don't know (or should know, but have forgotten). After that, I check my understanding against FoxLingo's English translation of the paragraph. I actually bought a separate monitor, which I can plug into my laptop to get a dual-screen workspace: English on one side, Arabic on the other.

The benefit of this is that I can cover a lot of territory in a short amount of time. With my Hans Wehr dictionary, it might take me half an hour or an hour to plow through a single paragraph. With FireFox, translation feedback comes almost instantly, allowing me to cover an entire article or two in that amount of time. The velocity of learning is probably increased tenfold.

IN SUMMARY

Online language tools certainly have their shortcomings, and like any technology, must be used properly. Students must know both their strengths and their limitations, and they must be careful not to use the technology as a crutch. With that said, these online resources are powerful tools for any language student to have in his or her bag of tricks. As a person who is ruthless about managing my time and always searching for ways to be more efficient, I appreciate how much these online tools have accelerated my learning process.

Activity Idea #1: Verb Practice

2008-11-20T06:49:00.000-08:00

Because my Arabic class consists of adult learners (including a former teacher), we have a good idea about how we learn best, and we often suggest activities to our teachers that we think would be helpful. I will continue to post some of our most useful activities, in case other Arabic students want to employ these ideas in their own classes.

As I was reviewing old vocabulary this week, I realized that I'd probably never spoken 2/3 of the verbs I've learned in real sentences. It's easy to fall back on the same verbs all the time--going, eating, arriving, taking--but it takes a lot more intentionality to use verbs like accompanying, decreasing, or cooperating. As the months go by I feel like I'm falling farther and farther behind with my verbs. Even when I can recall a verb perfectly as it appears on my flash cards, I can't quickly conjugate it and use it in a sentence on-the-fly.

To address this problem, I decided to initiate a new activity in class. I used RapidRote to print flash cards of every verb we have learned in the course so far (several hundred). I put them in a bag on my desk. Each of the four students in my section drew a verb before class started. Their goal was to use that particular verb in a sentence (as naturally as possible) during class. As soon as they used their verb, they drew a different one. There was aspect of competition involved--who could use the most verbs?--but the real goal was simply practicing verbs we rarely use. The exercise worked well. We each used eight or nine verbs in a three-hour period. We had to stretch to make some verbs work in relevant sentences, but we had fun and most of our teachers seemed to appreciate the effort to learn.

This is an easy exercise to set up, and it runs in the background--there's no need to devote class time to it. Simply integrate it into your day. We plan to continue this exercise as long as we're finding it helpful.

Online Resource: Aswaat Arabiyya

2008-11-20T06:38:00.000-08:00

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.