The Iraqi Arabic Dialect Orientation Course was designed to meet the immediate needs of Operation Desert Shield and to supplement already existing Arabic materials. The intended audience for this course includes both non-Modern Standard Arabic linguists and Modern Standard Arabic graduates who are unfamiliar with the Iraqi dialect, and presumes a rudimentary understanding of Arabic.

The course consists of eleven lessons: The first lesson focuses on pronunciation and an introduction of Iraqi dialect sounds; lessons two through eleven are designed around selected topic areas which highlight common situations one might expect to encounter. Typical situations include greetings, use of courtesy phrases, expressions of time and weather, and similar topics. These lessons illustrate these topics using relevant dialogues, with an emphasis on the key vocabulary related to that topic.

Usually a student can master each lesson in two to three hours. The text also makes it possible for instructors to present a crash course at remote locations. It was not the intent to present an exhaustive or complete Arabic grammar or vocabulary list, instead, the course must be viewed as an effort to teach students to begin to read Arabic. Scripts are included as a reference only for instructors and Modern Standard Arabic graduates.

The recommended way to use the course is as follows:

• 1. Listen to the tapes as much as possible.
• 2. Repeat after the tape while listening to it.
• 3. Practice with a friend or a speaker of the language as often as possible.
• 4. Memorize words, phrases and sentence patterns.
• 5. Study the Grammar Charts and examples given, then substitute other verbs and nouns and fit them into the same patterns.

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