Reviewing Al-Kitaab I: ألف باء
Arabic version is here.
For some reason, the Al-Kitaab series starts with a book that doesn’t use this title. Before reading ‘part one’ it’s necessary for the Arabic student to read Alif-Baa. This book presents and teaches the alphabet in a relatively straightforward manner with some vocabulary thrown in. The goals of Alif-Baa are much more modest than the other books in the series, which cover grammar and the language as a whole. As such, Alif-Baa is smaller and takes much less time to complete. Still, in terms of the limited goals, Alif-Baa succeeds and is probably the best book for teaching the Arabic alphabet to native English speakers.
First, the book includes a DVD which explains proper pronunciation, a perennial problem for every student, at the same time that it teaches writing the characters. Second the few vocabulary items are useful and some are referenced in the remainder of the series. Third, the exercises contained in Alif-Baa are useful for retaining knowledge. For these simple reasons Alif Baa is the best choice for an aspiring Arabic student, despite its high price.
When I used this book in 2005, I spent about 15 hours going through it and learned around 20 words.