This book is the first of its genre to explore the use of Arabizi, the Romanized script of the Arabic language that is used online or in chat apps, in the Arabic as a Foreign Language (AFL) classroom. It fills a noticeable, and glaring, gap in teaching a non-Romanized language through Romanized representation by observing and studying Arabizi as a resource that is yet to be acknowledged. As such, the author aptly, and concurrently, addresses concerns and problems that arise in AFL learning. An essential resource for studies in language acquisition, the author carves a new niche in the study of phonology, and phonetics, particularly so in L1 and L2 studies, with succinct and up-to-date examples. Relevant to applied linguistics and language educators in Arabic, it also draws comparisons between Chinese and Arabic alphabets in analyzing L1 and L2 purposes, making it a unique linguistic comparative contribution to the study of languages in classroom settings.

Zinnia Shweiry, Ph.D., is a faculty member at the American University of Beirut. Her research focus in often on the post-Civil War Beirut linguistic landscape and the colloquialization of written Arabic. She has been a professor of English language, and linguistics, for the past 18 years.