Language Learning Tip #02

Problem

I like to do things on the internet. Is there anything useful out there?

 

Idea

Nothing you can find on the internet is as good as face to face interaction with native speakers, so don’t neglect getting out. However, you can supplement your program with some useful internet tools if you have time. If you want to balance out your Arabic diet, each of these web sites brings different tastes and nutrients to your meal.

 

Check out these sites sometime:

http://arabicreadingcourse.com — A basic alphabet course with free app available

http://www.youtube.com/user/Homelang1/videos — Lots of helpful lessons for beginners presented in a Khan Academy style

http://gloss.dliflc.edu — great resource for input and practice; leveled audio and reading practice as well as some dialect recordings

http://mylanguages.org/learn_arabic.php — vocabulary with sound

http://arabic.byu.edu/ArabicMaterialIndex.htm — university site with quizes, drills, etc, (Al Kitaab mostly) Click on Students in the left sidebar

http://www.nclrc.org/webcasts/arabic — the Arabic news in simplified form; good for listening and vocabulary acquisition

http://www.byki.com  — vocabulary drilling program (free version and deluxe version)

http://www.memorylifter.com/home.html — another free vocabulary program based on the graduated time recall principle

http://ankisrs.net — Anki is yet another free vocabulary program. This is a user wiki-type program with advanced features and many of the GAP School’s materials have been added by students. You can download the program or use it online.

http://www.rosettastone.com/learn-arabic — pricey, but a good investment; try it out for free

http://arabic.desert-sky.net/links.html — a page with lots of useful links and some not so useful

http://www.falooka.com  — online community with Arabic courses and resources

http://www.busuu.com/enc/tour — another online community with free lessons

http://www.arabiconline.eu — excellent online course from the EU, standard Arabic

http://arabicpod101.com — Standard Arabic. You can listen to many of their lessons for free, but the premium package costs from about $4.00 – $10.00 a month

http://www.youtube.com/user/arabicpod101?feature=watch — ArabicPod101 on YouTube.

http://www.thearabicstudent.com/2011/10/arabic-pod-101.html — a helpful blog that has been discontinued but still fun to read

http://www.youtube.com/user/LearnArabicwithMaha?feature=watch — Hundreds of popular free video lessons from a lively lady teacher in Italy

http://www.gulfarabic.com/ — Not sure how much Arabic you can actually learn here but it’s one of the few sites with Gulf dialect

http://arabiansinbad.com — Arabian Sindbad is a package for teaching children Arabic featuring cartoon videos and songs. You can get the deluxe package for about $130 but just the DVDs for less. Beginner adults who watch with their children will also learn quite a bit

http://www.youtube.com/user/arabiansinbad/videos — Arabian Sindbad YouTube channel with free videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhLJbDN0Z-0 — Another way to watch Arabian Sindbad with English and Arabic subtitles

http://readarabic.nflc.org/ — Very good site for Arabic reading practice for all levels (after alphabet is learned). Includes exercises & quizzes. Works best with Firefox 3 or higher or Explorer 6 or higher (Windows).

http://www.livelingua.com/fsi-arabic-course.php — Access to the old (1969) FSI (Foreign Service Institute) materials and some of the associated audio