Introduction:
Arabic is a Semitic language that first emerged in the 1st to 4th centuries CE. It is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. It is named after the Arabs, a term initially used to describe peoples living in the Arabian Peninsula bounded by eastern Egypt in the west, Mesopotamia in the east, and the Anti-Lebanon mountains and Northern Syria in the north, as perceived by ancient Greek geographers. The ISO assigns language codes to thirty varieties of Arabic, including its standard form, Modern Standard Arabic, also referred to as Literary Arabic, which is modernized Classical Arabic.
You need to understand that Arabic is based on a system of roots. For example, the three letters K -T – B (كتب) can be used to form a vast number of words, such as kaatib – writer, kitaab – book, istiktaab – dictation, maktoob – written, kitaaba – writing etc. Most of these derivations are formed according to rules that can be learned easily. Once you have mastered these grammatical rules you will be able not only to guess the meaning of many unknown words but to “invent” or “guess” new words yourself. So a good place to start your campaign to increase your Arabic vocabulary would be to take a good look at the grammatical forms that can be derived from a root.
Increasing your Arabic vocabulary is one of the best ways to learn Arabic. The more Arabic vocabulary you memorize, the better the Arabic language you have.
When starting to learn any language, especially a vast one like Arabic, we can easily find ourselves overwhelmed by the great number of words. It is even more difficult for foreign learners, who do not live in an Arab country and do not use Arabic every day. Thus, it is common to wonder how to learn as many words as possible, in a short amount of time. One of the major frustrations a student of Arabic faces is “how can I gain/retain all this vocabulary”.You realized that simply being exposed to new words is just not enough. Part of any successful language learning is memorization and this is precisely why students need to be taught memorization techniques.
What will help you learning Japanese
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FlashCards
Everyone is familiar with flashcards. Students enthusiastically start with flashcards and by the end of a semester have hundreds of flashcards lying around the house. The reason why flashcards work is that they force the student to recall the sight of the word and its meaning associated with it by constant repetition.
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Hear & Associate
Memorization works best when the word being memorized is associated with something your mind already recognizes. When you first hear a word, the first thing to do is to make sure one has heard its correct pronunciation by having the word repeated to oneself a second and third time. Then, repeat the word to yourself a few times out loud or internally to ensure mastery. Don’t stop there. Associate the word to the context in which it was used. It’s simply not enough to know what a word means in Arabic if one does not know what context it was used. Associating words to a context will provide the skills for one to use these words appropriately.
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Make Your Own Phrases and Sentences
When coming across a new word, in addition to writing down its translation write down a phrase in which the word is used. This helps put the new words into practice and provides context for the word for a deeper understanding. If one is unable to get a particular word to stick then use that word in as many sentences as possible until it sticks.
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Read, Read, Read!
There is no better way to expand one’s vocabulary than by reading. Start with materials appropriate to your level. If you’re a beginner, start with small children’s stories, short blog posts, quotes, or social media posts on Facebook or Twitter. Once you’re comfortable with this, move to longer materials like magazine articles, newspapers, and books. The key is to expose oneself to multiple words used in different contexts in order to expand the word’s usability. Make it a point to write down new vocabulary when encountering them and then apply the techniques above.
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Use Cognates
Cognates are two words in different languages that share similar meanings in spelling and pronunciation. Believe it or not, there are words in the English language that take their origin in the Arabic language. The word ??? qutn | qutun, means cotton. They don’t sound exactly the same, but similar enough for one to see the connection. Furthermore, these techniques are more beneficial for modern words in the Arabic language that take their origin in the English language such as the word ??????, which means mobile.
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Straight Repetition
This isn’t everyone’s most favorite technique, but it works. People have been doing this method to commit words, facts, and whole books to memory for centuries. It comes in handy when trying to memorize hard-to-remember words you encounter in your readings. In addition, frequent repetition allows your mind to form an auditory familiarity in your mind making it easy for you to remember and recall it when you need it later.
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Review Often
Last but not least, when memorizing vocabulary remember that yesterday’s vocabulary is more important than today’s. The goal is to transfer the new vocabulary from your short-term memory to your long-term memory. Review is essential – in the first few days or weeks after learning new vocabulary recycle those words continuously in order to ingrain them into your memory.
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Develop Your own vocabulary learning method
This is the most important one. According to the research, most successful learners develop their own methods to learn vocabulary. Generally, this method is a combination of several methods. By using all the methods for some time, you will be able to figure out which ones are working for you. Then you can take the good points from all the working methods and develop you own custom method that is the best for you.
Use audio whenever you can get hold of it. Using an audio recording of a text in conjunction with the text itself is not only good for Arabic pronunciation, but it also gives your brain another chance to absorb the new words.
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Conclusion
Learning vocabulary can be difficult, but it is well worth your time. A richer vocabulary allows you to communicate more fluidly, understand others and express yourself fully. With these ways to memorize Arabic vocabulary fast, you should be recalling and using new vocabulary in no time!
So! get your vocabulary enriched with the Multibhashi’s Arabic Learning course.