This page contains brief lessons about specific grammatical issues and focuses mostly on Egyptian colloquial Arabic, though it does also include some information about Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Given their brevity, the lessons are of limited use.
This is a blog that links to videos, music, and other information about studying and learning Arabic. The blog provides comments on information provided. For instance, there is a link to an episode of The Simpsons in Arabic while providing sentences and translations of some of the more complicated phrasing.
These extensive vocabulary lists are grouped by topic, and they include MSA terms and occasionally their Egyptian colloquial equivalent. There are also a number of lists with various idioms and Egyptian colloquial expressions. Arabic spellings are accompanied by transliterations.
This paper speaks about Arabic and the problem of diglossia. In the paper, the author discusses the place of Arabic in the world of languages. The author also speaks about some of the aspects that make Arabic a difficult language to learn for speakers of Indo-European languages and discusses the problem of diglossia in modern Arabic. Ultimately, he makes a proposal on a possible way to teach Arabic that directly addresses the diglossia issue.
Aswaat Arabiyya is an archive of 245 videos in Arabic, listed by difficulty level and accompanied by glossaries and four worksheets each that focus on every aspect of listening comprehension. Selections come largely from Arabic media, with some cultural presentations by native speakers. Videos cover the entire Arabic-speaking world and include MSA and different dialects. Materials are designed to be used both as in-class activities and homework assignments. Videos can be slowed down.
This is a website that connects language learners to tutors, language exchanges, a language learning blog, a forum for asking language questions, and a word of the day option. Arabic word of the day options are currently only available in MSA; Egyptian and Syrian dialects are forthcoming. Games are not currently available for Arabic on the site.
This site houses a large number of very brief audio files in which native speakers say brief, useful, every day phrases in a number of conjugations. Phrases include things like "How much is this?" "How are you?" or simply reciting useful vocabulary and also cover numbers and time. Each phrase is spoken in 8 or 9 dialects from the regions of North Africa, the Levant, and the Persian Gulf. Every phrase is accompanied by a transcript.
Critical Language Service offers playlists with video lessons that explain the material in Alif Baa, Al-Kitaab 1 (through lesson 11), and a series on Egyptian vocabulary. Videos designed for the Alif Baa series focus on stories to illustrate new vocabulary while the series designed for Al-Kitaab explains grammatical concepts introduced in the books, and demonstrate proper pronunciation. They also offer a playlist of 60 cartoon episodes in Arabic.
CultureTalk - Arab World features a very extensive selection of filmed interviews with people from different countries in the Arabic speaking world. While some interviews are in English, the vast majority are in Arabic. Translations and usually transcripts are provided for all non-English video clips. Topics include family, food, education, religious and cultural customs, work, art, sport, travel, etc. The regions covered are the Levant, North Africa, Egypt, and Mauritania, with an Iraqi section on the way.
CultureTalk - Arab World features native speakers from across the Arabic-speaking world giving filmed interviews, in Arabic and sometimes English, on selected topics. Text-based translations and transcriptions are often provided as downloadable documents for most Arabic videos. The videos engage a number of region/country-specific topics, including cultural traditions, religion, politics, and sports.
CultureTalk - Arab World features native speakers from across the Arabic-speaking world giving filmed interviews, in Arabic and sometimes English, on selected topics. Text-based translations and transcriptions are often provided as downloadable documents for most Arabic videos. The videos engage a number of region/country-specific topics, including cultural traditions, religion, politics, and sports.
CultureTalk - Arab World features native speakers from across the Arabic-speaking world giving filmed interviews, in Arabic and sometimes English, on selected topics. Text-based translations and transcriptions are often provided as downloadable documents for most Arabic videos. The videos engage a number of region/country-specific topics, including cultural traditions, religion, politics, and sports.
This list presents a basic set of verbs that deal with everyday activities, including walking, running, eating, working, and sleeping. The verbs are presented in third person masculine past and present tense, with the masdar (verbal noun/gerund) listed, as well. The verbs are presented in both modern standard and colloquial Egypt, and feature Arabic text and transliteration.
UCLA's Listen to Learn activities page features numerous, high-quality videos and activities covering a variety of Arabic dialects, including Iraqi, Lebanese, Egyptian, Moroccan, as well as Modern Standard Arabic. Users may pick from a number of speakers within a chosen dialect, all of whom speak from readily available text about a range of topics, including family life, culture, school, activities, and food. Each topic is accompanied by a video and activities designed to reinforce the vocabulary and ideas covered in the video.
This blog hosts a user generated dictionary of slang terms from the various Arabic speaking countries. Users can submit terms and rate other users' entries. The site collects terms for 18 different dialects from the regions of the Persian Gulf, the Levant, and North Africa and allows users to search its collection by dialect or alphabetical order. There is considerable overlap within many of these dialects.
This is a radio station out of Lebanon that provides free streaming via their Ôlive audioŐ button. Unlike many other radio station websites operating out of the Middle East, it provides reliable, live audio to their station and is consistently updated. The interface is in English, making it easy to use for novice speakers of Arabic who are looking to listen in on some Arabic radio. Some of their archived shows play English music.
This page hosts five different lists of phrases grouped by categorry: introductory phrases, basic phrases and questions, and phrases related to the weather, hospitals, and internet cafes. Each phrase is written out alongside a transliteration and a translation.
This fairly active forum focuses on Moroccan Arabic. Its linguistic with sub-forums are focused on translation, books and exercises to practice Darija, and instructional videos. There are also many sub-forums on cultural issues. Additionally, there is a sub-forum conducted entirely in Arabic. Users must be logged in in order to post.
Though this website focuses on providing tours to Egypt, it offers an extensive list of words in the Egyptian dialect in both Arabic script and in transliteration. The word list includes the kinds of words you might need to know when traveling, such as "Go straight please" and "I need room service." Each word is transliterated and accompanied by an audio file. There is also an article about history of the Arabic language and the Egyptian dialect. Photo galleries on the site could be used as part of classroom instruction.
The UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive includes samples taken from Egyptian, Iraqi, Najdi, North and South Levantine, and Tunisian dialects. The Arabic recordings consist almost exclusively of word lists read aloud to illustrate small differences in the pronunciation of the words. The Phonetics Laboratory includes recordings of hundreds of languages and provides them for free as source materials for phonetic and phonological research. Phonetic transcriptions are included alongside the recordings as are translations and scans of original field notes where relevant.