Newly Compiled Arabic (Book 2)

Author: Guo Shouhua (Editor-in-Chief), Jiang Chuanying (Editor)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-10-01
Features: Newly Compiled Arabic is a textbook designed for the core courses—intensive reading—of Arabic majors in universities for grades 1 to 3, consisting of 6 volumes. Newly Compiled Arabic was commissioned by the Arabic Teaching Guidance Committee of the Ministry of Education for Foreign Language Majors and funded by the committee. It is also a key project supported by the Beijing Municipal Excellent Textbook Project and a reform project funded by Beijing Foreign Studies University. The publication of Newly Compiled Arabic should first be credited to the aforementioned departments.
Newly Compiled Arabic is a collaborative textbook primarily developed by teachers from Beijing Foreign Studies University, with participation from Peking University and Beijing Normal University of Foreign Studies. It is the first Arabic core course textbook to cross institutional boundaries, representing a collaborative effort with broader significance.
Newly Compiled Arabic adheres to the requirements of the Guidelines for Foreign Language Major Undergraduate Education Reform in the 21st Century proposed by the Teaching Guidance Committee for Foreign Language Majors. It strives to achieve the following:
1) Ensuring teaching content and linguistic knowledge are up-to-date;
2) Balancing the relationship between professional knowledge, language training, and related disciplines;
3) Not only imparting knowledge but also fostering students' learning, thinking, critical appreciation, and innovative abilities;
4) Providing practical and targeted teaching content with a focus on developing students' language application skills;
5) Utilizing modern technologies such as computers, multimedia, and the internet to supplement multimedia teaching materials where feasible.
Newly Compiled Arabic is based on the Teaching Syllabus for Basic Arabic and the Teaching Syllabus for Advanced Arabic of foreign language majors in universities. It aims to align with these syllabi in terms of correct pronunciation and intonation, standardized morphology, syntax, and discourse structure, vocabulary quantity, and skills in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and translation, as well as practical foreign language proficiency. By incorporating the linguistic principles of Arabic and the laws of foreign language teaching, it has become a scientifically and systematically structured textbook.
Newly Compiled Arabic fully incorporates the strengths of textbooks such as Basic Arabic, Arabic, and Fundamentals of Arabic, extensively drawing on excellent domestic and international Arabic and English textbooks. It broadens perspectives, explores innovative approaches, and emphasizes the cultivation of moral, cultural, and psychological qualities. The content is enriched with social and cultural knowledge and basic scientific, ensuring a well-structured, comprehensive, practical, and culturally relevant textbook.
Our aspiration is to make Newly Compiled Arabic a systematic, scientific, contemporary, and engaging textbook. Whether this goal is achieved depends on the judgment of the readers. We sincerely welcome the use of this textbook by Arabic majors in universities and schools across the country and hope to receive valuable feedback for further improvement.
Newly Compiled Arabic (Volume 2) is guided by the Teaching Syllabus for Basic Arabic and based on 13 years of teaching practice from Basic Arabic (Volume 2). After soliciting feedback from students and teachers, the overall design and arrangement follow the principles of gradual progression from simple to complex, systematic review, and reinforcement. In terms of content, it emphasizes communicative and practical aspects while also focusing on timeliness and, as well as introducing relevant cultural and background knowledge. The teaching process places greater emphasis on activating and leveraging students' initiative.
This volume consists of 17 lessons, with the first 16 serving as main texts organized around five themes: public communication (Lessons 2–5), leisure life (Lessons 1–7), studies (Lessons 8–10), national conditions (Lessons 12–13), and social culture (Lessons 11–16). Lesson 17 is a comprehensive review. The book contains approximately 1,300 words, with 1,060 key words and 96 sentence patterns. Listening and dictation exercises are provided at the end of the book.
The design of this volume follows a weekly lesson structure. Each lesson includes dialogues, texts, proverbs and sayings, vocabulary, sentence patterns, notes, oral and written exercises, reading, listening, and grammar. The post-lesson exercises are abundant, allowing teachers to select all or part of them for classroom use based on specific teaching needs. The dialogues and texts are closely related to students' daily lives, facilitating comprehension and language practice. The sentence patterns are practical and versatile, and the notes explain linguistic knowledge while introducing related cultural, linguistic background, and alternative expressions to aid students in previewing and better understanding new concepts.
Oral exercises systematically review pronunciation rules, strengthen listening and reading training to refine students' phonetics and intonation, and include individual presentations, retellings, role-playing, dialogues, and group discussions. These activities provide opportunities for students to express their knowledge, experiences, thoughts, and opinions, transforming learned language into their own. Written exercises, in addition to skill-based practice, include thought-provoking tasks to encourage students to discover and summarize linguistic patterns, further reinforcing their language application skills and fostering independent learning potential.
The reading materials complement the lesson themes, covering topics such as social life and cultural communication. Listening exercises feature diverse genres—autobiographies, narratives, dialogues, broadcasts, and stories—making them engaging and lively. Grammar instruction is concise and contextualized, supplemented by systematic explanations and exercises to bridge the gap between grammatical structure and communicative function.
During teaching, teachers should continue to emphasize loud reading, phonetics and intonation, as well as training in listening, speaking, translation, and writing. When introducing new language points, focus on key aspects while being selective, avoiding excessive coverage. In exercises, teachers play an auxiliary role, guiding students to find relevant materials, encouraging participation, and helping them prepare before applying their language resources to complete tasks.
Students should engage in the teaching process proactively and creatively, understanding requirements, showcasing their intelligence, independent thinking, and insights. They should master the fundamentals of listening, speaking, reading, writing, and translation, actively applying classroom knowledge and other language resources to practice through both classroom and social activities. This approach aims to solidify foundational skills and continuously improve language proficiency.