A research-based approach to learning beginner-level contemporary Egyptian Arabic that puts culture up front
El Mumtaaz provides learners new to Egyptian Arabic (EA) with the keys to understanding and speaking the language while also developing their facility to understand EA as written online. With relevant themes, humorous dialogues about contemporary life, thematic vocabulary, and lots of Egyptian culture and pragmatics, Mahmoud Azaz and Ayman Mohamed have built each chapter around ACTFL's world readiness standards, ensuring mastery of one of the most widely spoken varieties of Arabic. Partner and group activities and easy-to-follow grammar explanations give learners every tool for mastery. Robust culture sections, using memes and jokes to teach pragmatics, round out each chapter.
Covering topics that include introductions and greetings, family, the daily and weekly routine, friends and colleagues, education, food, weather, errands, vacations and going out, clothes and shopping, and living arrangements, learners should reach Intermediate-Low after completing their work. The book includes free streaming audio and video (available on the publisher's website) for many opportunities for listening and practicing Egyptian Arabic. The lessons not only encourage language and culture learning but also create authentic connections with Egyptian speakers in the learners' communities.
El Mumtaaz can be used alongside textbooks either teaching Modern Standard Arabic alone or teaching the integrated method, as well as on its own in a course focused on Egyptian Arabic.
Reviews
"A lively, thorough, and fun addition to the books on modern Egyptian Arabic, El Mumtaaz stands out for its alignment with the ACTFL guidelines and 5 C's, its assessment rubrics, its integration of video, pragmatics, and Egyptian humor, and its attention to the nascent Masri orthography. Mumtaaz ya Mumtaaz!"—Noha Forster, University of Chicago, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
About the Author
Mahmoud Azaz is a University of Arizona Distinguished Fellow and teaches SLA and pedagogy courses in various departments. He focuses on linguistic approaches to Arabic SLA, Arabic pedagogy, and sociolinguistics. Ayman Mohamed is an assistant professor at Michigan State University, where he teaches all levels of Arabic, including the Egyptian dialect. His research interests include task-based learning and incidental vocabulary acquisition.
