Dear Sara, Your important question pushed me to search the net for a reasonable answer. Luckily, I found these two comments about the subject: "Language is not separate from the way of life (culture) that it supports and that it depends on, nor is it separable from the concrete activities of the people, nor from their specific interpersonal relationships. To learn a language is to be nurtured or apprenticed into the life-world of individual host people and groups. Therefore, in this approach we commonly speak of “growing participators” rather than “language learners”." "But if you plan to make friends, buy things and haggle, travel, attempt to blend in and not get ripped off, watch a lot of TV such as comedy or soap operas, and even work in most jobs, then you’d be crazy to learn MSA first. Even the locals (a vast majority of them) do not speak it. They do indeed understand it, but you’d have to seriously and unrealistically restrict your interactions if you wanted a reply in MSA. Let me say that again because it bears repeating: Most people in Arabic speaking countries do NOT speak Modern Standard Arabic. They ONLY speak dialect." I hope these two comments (which are not mine) answer your question. Regards, NB. I think these two links may have more infomation. https://growingparticipatorapproach.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/msa-or-colloquial-arabic-thomson-and-benny-agree/ https://growingparticipatorapproach.wordpress.com/the-growing-participator-approach-gpa-a-brief-state-of-the-art-and-some-practical-illustrations/