The purpose of this book is to set students on the road to learning Modern Standard Arabic by equipping them with all the skills they need to read and write vowelised Arabic texts. By the end of the book students should be able to:

• identify all the letters of the Arabic alphabet in their isolate and joined forms
• know the difference between the long and short vowel sounds and how to read them, including the diphthongs ay and ow
• read the tanween word endings
• understand the roles of sukoon and shadda
• read words containing a hamza, no matter its position within a word
• recognise the alif al-maqsura
• identify the sun and moon letters and understand their effect on the pronunciation of words defined by al-
• read fully vowelised Arabic text

Although this work is primarily intended for classroom use, it is also well-suited to self-taught learners. To this end, an audio CD recording of all the materials in the book will be made available to help foster good pronunciation. This workbook assumes no prior knowledge of Arabic whatsoever. Clear, simple explanations introduce each new topic, supported by a wealth of exercises and activities, thereby helping to reinforce the learning process and to ensure rapid progression. The use of colour coding to highlight each point under discussion, as well as the inclusion of quality colour illustrations, serve to enhance the learning experience. The materials included offer extensive reading and writing practice as well as the opportunity for dictation exercises as a means of monitoring the learners progress. By the end of the book, students should be sufficiently competent in reading and writing the Arabic script to be able to progress to part two of the series in which they will start to learn Arabic grammar and vocabulary; read and construct sentences with understanding; and begin speaking this important international language.