Thursday, 30 December 2021

Resources for learning and practicing Arabic

In this post, I have put together Book and Video resources for anybody who wants to study Arabic at their own pace as opposed to joining a class. If you prefer to study at the pace of a class, then see this post instead.

The resources below are ordered alphabetically and not in an order of recommendation.

Books

  • Arabic Reader (Published by Lund Humphries) – This is a fantastic resource to practice your reading once you know the basic rules of grammar. It provides comprehensive vocabulary and footnotes so you don't have to keep digging into the dictionary. However, note that it is advanced so not a good book to start with.
  • Mastering Arabic (Published by Palgrave Macmillan) – There are four books in the series: 'Mastering Arabic Script', 'Mastering Arabic', 'Mastering Arabic 2' and 'Mastering Arabic Grammar'. This is a good series to have in your library but I wouldn't say it is sufficient to learn Arabic. It is a little sparse in detail and in repeating concepts so you'll need other resources to hand in order to solidify the concepts that you learn in these books.

Videos

Arabic Language Academy (YouTube Playlists)

The following three playlists offer a good means of improving your vocabulary of everyday words and sentences:

Bayyinah TV

Paying $11 (£8-ish) per month to get access to the full library of content on the Bayyinah TV platform is well worth it if you're going to spend a few hours on there per week. Otherwise, the following YouTube playlists are a good starting point:

FC LangMedia (YouTube Playlists)

The Arabic grammar videos in the following playlists are as clear and as concise as you will find. I'll be very surprised if anyone can point me to a set of videos which can match these for clarity and conciseness.

Hidaya Center (YouTube channel)

The videos on this channel have an animated and repetitive style. I find that this helps to learn and remember new vocabulary. For the full set of playlists available in this channel, see here. The two playlists that I have enjoyed particularly so far are the following:

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Jazakallahu. First time visiting the blog. Very helpful. May Allah reward you. Don't stop and keep spreading the deen. All the best wishes.