Arabic-L:PEDA:Exchange on DLPT4 Book

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Wed 04 May  2005
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject:Exchange on DLPT4 Book

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1)
Date: 04 May  2005
From:director.gls at gmail.com
Subject:Exchange on DLPT4 Book

Hi Stephen,
This is Jabra Ghneim, author of the DLPT book. Actually you got it all
wrong about the book being for DLPT 4. The book was constructed using
Bayesian selection methods from a corpora. Let me explain that in
plain English. I taught Arabic to the military for a good part of last
year and also over the past 12 years period. Using that experience I
managed to develop a teaching methodology where we can get student
start Arabic from scratch and pass the DLPT at 2/2+/1+ in 46 weeks
(actually 36 weeks in other cases.) Using this experience over the
past 12 years I developed a huge corpora of text from different
genres, and along with it I generated a list of the most frequent
words and verbs in the Arabic language. Then I wrote a computer
program using C+  and Python that went into that data dumb and
selected the text (I like to call them cuts) that scored high
frequencies in terms of verbs and nouns and even some grammatical
rules (Idafa, passive active, etc) . SO, when you use the book you
will encounter 95% (margin of error is + or _3% in the current version
of the book) of the Arabic that you need to know to do your job for
the military or any other analyst job. Thus, the book is designed to
provide value and training regardless of the version of the test you
are taking. Now is there more to be done, yes of course, in the next
version (next 12 months) I will try to narrow my margin of error to 1%
and increase vocab and structure coverage. I will also be working on
adding live text (TV and radio broadcasting) into the material and
make it simulate more real life situations. Still, I believe the
current version of the book can serve all Arabic learners, especially
in the military, to pass any version of the DLPT.

Regards
Jabra Ghneim
Director, GLS

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1)
Date: 04 May  2005
From:mutarjm at aol.com
Subject:Exchange on DLPT4 Book

Greetings again.
 
Thank you for your note. Your comment (inlided below for reference)  
that you "have trained hundreds of students" seems at odds with your  
earlier statement that you have no prior experience or substantive  
knowledge of the DLPT for Arabic (MSA). If you don't know the structure  
and contents of the DLPT (for which a student cannot be trained  
intentionally or specifically), there seems no basis of claiming a  
direct correlation of your reference with a testee's results on the  
DLPT of whatever version.
 
The DLPT is not a "standard" language test, so that term does not  
apply. DLPT 5 includes a larger performance component.
 
Most evidence from testing records indictes that the optimum method of  
preparation to raise one's score on mandatory annual (at least in the  
US Dept of Defense) Arabic DLPT is "sweat equity" acquired by study,  
periodic "proficiency sustainment/maintenance" training,  and practice,  
practice, and practice under the auspices and resources of a "command  
language program" conducted by a military unit which has assigned  
linguists.
 
Regards,
 
Stephen H. Franke
mutarjm at aol.com
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End of Arabic-L:  04 May  2005