This book presents a comprehensive foundation course for beginning students of written and spoken Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), providing an essential grounding for successful communication with speakers of the many colloquial varieties. This long-established and successful text has been completely revised with the needs of English-speaking learners especially in mind, and will prove invaluable to students and teachers alike. <LI> Step-by-step guide to understanding written and spoken texts <LI> Develops conversational ability as well as reading and writing skills <LI> Arabic-English Glossary containing 2600 entries <LI> Fresh texts and dialogues containing up-to-date data on the Middle East and North Africa <LI> Includes Arab folklore, customs, proverbs, and short essays on contemporary topics <LI> Grammatical terms also given in Arabic enabling students to attend language courses in Arab countries <LI> Provides a wide variety of exercises and drills to reinforce grammar points, vocabulary learning and communicative strategies <LI> Includes a key to the exercises <LI> Accompanying cassettes also available.