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Rating: 
Summary: Okay for the Classroom
Review: For a long time, Abboud and McCarus was the only game in town if you wanted to learn Arabic. Virtually every college course in Arabic used it throughout the USA.Now the picture is different. Arabic studies are not the arcane field they once were, and there is a great variety of material out there. Still, this set has its virtues. It has a lot of drill material, and while this can be a bore, it is a godsend in the final analysis if you really want to learn literary Arabic. The abundance of material makes it difficult to use as a self-teacher, however, and its better not used for that. Also, the print (done with an Arabic typewriter) is hard to read. My advise to the student is to start off with another course, and then switch to this series of readers when you've reached the intermediate stage.
Rating: 
Summary: useful, but boring
Review: the second part of EMSA inherits the problems of the first part - it is unbelivably boring. the reading texts are a bit more diverse, probably because the level of students is higher. but still, some of them are just plain stupid - my vote would go to unit 35, where the highlight of the visit to jerusalem is the fact that the friend's wife made some dinner and they drank arabic coffee. what IS arabic coffee anyway? plus, the texts are all edited, which is a bit discouraging for the students, I think. the grammar part is a lot more useful - if you don't mind the choice of examples. I used the book a lot as a reference when I was an intermediate student and found it very helpful. so the stars given are for the grammar parts and not the rest - especially not the layout. I would only recommend this book if you have some serious gaps in your arabic that you need to close (and quickly), or use it as a reference. you can, then, use it on your own, even though it doesn't have the key to the exercises. but as a complete introductory course better find something that has authentic materials - you'll enjoy it so much more.
Rating: 
Summary: for the "special needs" student
Review: This is used in my local high school and is geared for the student who never faced a foreign language before. It travels, like a desert caravan, at the speed of the slowest. Lots of repetition, lots of drills, and lengthy explanations of things that are obvious to anybody who has EVER studied a language. If you have always been totally lost in grammar class but have some life-threatening need to learn Arabic even if it's very slowly, this course is for you.
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