Designed to cover beginning college levels of language instruction, Uzbek: An Elementary Textbook provides learners and instructors with a wide selection of materials and task-oriented activities to facilitate the development of language learning. It offers a thematically organized and integrative approach to the Uzbek language and its culture, including a functional approach to grammar, an emphasis on integrated skills development, and the use of authentic materials such as videos filmed in various regions of Uzbekistan. Uzbek: An Elementary Textbook contains one CD-ROM that includes authentic audio and video materials to accompany the text and integrated, interactive exercises and games, all in Flash format and all of which are keyed to the textbook. It includes a supplementary Cyrillic reader, an extensive glossary, and four-color illustrations and photographs throughout. Topics Covered: the Uzbek alphabet, greetings and introductions, commands and requests, daily routines, etiquette, weather, family, money, food, clothing, travel, leisure, and medical matters. Minimum System Requirements; Intel(registered) Pentium (registered) III 1.2 6 GHz or faster processor (or equivalent); Mac OS 10.5 or higher; 512 MB of RAM; CD Drive; and Speakers or headphones On a PC, files will load automatically. On a Mac, double click on the disk icon. Then, double click on the program icon that looks like an "f" in a red square labeled "Uzbek."

This long-awaited textbook is quite special. It is one of the first published books on a Turkic language that uses the communicative approach. It teaches the culture as well as the language. It is user-friendly with lots of colorful pictures. It familiarizes students to the spoken language by presenting real life dialogues and video clips. It has clear and precise grammar explanations and provides the student with exercises and situations for using the language in context. Overall, it is fun to use. I would recommend it to all teachers of Uzbek. Not only will they have an interesting time and experience, their students will as well. -Guliz Kuruoğlu, University of California, Los Angeles

Nigora Azimova is a native of Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and is a language specialist at the Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region at Indiana University.