http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/181948681

The Effectiveness of Programmed "Grafdrils" in Teaching the ArabicWriting System

This is a final report of research in the teaching of the arabic writing system, conducted in the harvard summer school in 1962. a control group was taught arabic in the traditional grammar-translation method, for approximately 15 hours, while the experimental group used a set of self-instructional materials accompanied by tapes for the same amount of time. These programed materials called "grafdrils" originated in the phonetic script test of the modern language aptitude test and are organized into six phases--presentation, writing drill, graphic drill, sound drill, writing practice, and dictation drill. The technique involves basically "the systematic presentation of correlated visual and auditory stimuli in such a way that a subject can note these correlations and use them in making his responses to problems calling for the matching of a speech response to a visual stimulus or a written response to an auditory stimulus." The authors conclude from the results of the tests that the "grafdril" technique is in general "a more efficient method of teaching a writing system than either (a) a lecture-type classroom presentation, or (b) self-study from a textbook." The appendices to this report include sample "grafdril" sheets and tape-scripts, writing practices, instructions regarding preparation of a criterion test, a test sheet and a tape script. (Amm).

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