IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Smart Sparrow Companion Website access will not be available after 12/31/20. Multimedia textbook bundles (textbook + Smart Sparrow website access card) will not be available after 5/31/20 and will be replaced by the standalone textbook, available now, which has always included the homework exercises featured on the companion websites. The answer key is available to purchase separately. Instructors should alert students and campus bookstores to buy the textbook (Hardcover ISBN 9781589016446, Paperback ISBN 9781589016323) and not the multimedia textbook bundles beginning with the Fall 2020 term. Access to the Smart Sparrow Companion website is available free of charge until 12/31/20. Audio and video are available to stream free of charge at AlKitaabTextbook.com. (DVDs that once featured the audio and video are now obsolete and no longer included in the books.) Alif Baa is the first volume of the best-selling Al-Kitaab Arabic Language Program now in its third edition and available as a multimedia textbook with added functionality and ease of use for students and teachers. In this edition of the introduction to Arabic letters and sounds, English-speaking students will find an innovative integration of colloquial and formal (spoken and written) Arabic. Together, the book and its companion website provide learners with all the material necessary to learn the sounds of Arabic, write its letters, and begin speaking Arabic, including interactive, self-correcting exercises to enhance learning. The companion website also gives instructors additional online grading options. FEATURES * Four-color design throughout the book features over 100 illustrations and photographs * Gives learners and instructors color-coded options for the variety of language they wish to learn in speaking: Egyptian, Levantine, or formal Arabic (MSA) * Introduces over 200 basic vocabulary words in all three forms of spoken and written Arabic side by side, including expressions for polite social interaction, and activates them in interactive homework exercises and classroom groupwork * Includes video dialogues in Egyptian and Levantine, filmed in Cairo and Damascus, streaming on AlKitaabTextbook.com * Includes video footage of an Arabic calligrapher, capsules on Arabic culture, and images of street signs from Morocco, Egypt, and Lebanon, streaming on AlKitaabTextbook.com * Includes new English-Arabic and Arabic-English glossaries Alif Baa provides the essential first 20-25 contact (classroom) hours of the Al-Kitaab program, accompanied by 40-50 homework hours. Students who complete Alif Baa should reach a novice-intermediate to novice-high level of proficiency.