Arabic-L:PEDA:Graded stories for HS?

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Wed 09 Sep 2009
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject:Graded stories for HS?

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1)
Date: 09 Sep 2009
From:Ahmed Hassan Khorshid <khorshid at aucegypt.edu>
Subject:Graded stories for HS?

Dear list members,

Some colleagues have asked me if the series of graded stories,  
Sahlawayhi 1,2&3 are suitable for high school students. Please let me  
try to explain;

First: The first story has 200 words, including the definite article  
“al”, and, or, then, the subject pronouns, the object pronouns, 45  
basic verbs like to eat, to drink, to come, to go,  69 basic nouns  
like house, street, clothes, food, boy, girl, 24 basic adjectives like  
happy, sad, big, small, 7 prepositions, 8 question words. 170 words of  
these (85%) are repeated in the second story (more statistics are  
available on demand). If your high school students know this number,  
or close to it, then the vocabulary is at their level.

Second: The structure necessary to understand the first four stories  
is the present tense, idaafa, nisba, the relative pronouns, and a few  
examples of other structures. If your high school students know these  
items, then the structure is at their level.

Third: The topics are for adults, but not complicated. There is some  
symbolism in some stories, but understanding this is not prerequisite  
to understanding the stories. Symbolism ranges from very subtle  
(difficult to detect even by native speakers, like the second story)  
to very explicit like “A Journey to the Future”.

A final point is motivation. This series is designed for reading a big  
volume of Arabic. Good luck in motivating your students to read much!


-- 
Ahmad Khorshid
Arabic Language Instructor


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End of Arabic-L:  09 Sep 2009