Listen to a short simple text and summarise it in writing

How to Summarize a Short Arabic Text

When you listen to a short Arabic text, your task is to hear the main ideas and write them down in a short summary. A summary (mulākhaṣ مُلَخَّص) is a short version that includes only the most important information from what you heard.

Steps to Summarize

1. Listen carefully to the whole text first.
2. Identify the main ideas — who is the text about? What is happening?
3. Write down key words in Arabic.
4. Form short sentences that convey the main ideas.

Key Arabic Words for This Task

Arabic (voweled)	Romanization	English Meaning
قصة	qissa	story
كتاب	kitāb	book
مدرسة	madrasa	school
يوم	yawm	day
非常重要	muhim	important

Example: Listening and Summarizing

Listen to this short Arabic text:

al-walad yadhhabu ila al-madrasa kulli yawm. (ٱلْوَلَدُ يَذْهَبُ إِلَى ٱلْمَدْرَسَةِ كُلَّ يَوْمٍ) "The boy goes to school every day."

huwa yaqra'u al-kitāb fī al-madrasa. (هُوَ يَقْرَأُ ٱلْكِتَابَ فِي ٱلْمَدْرَسَةِ) "He reads the book at school."

How to summarize it:

Write: al-walad yadhhabu ila al-madrasa wa yaqra'a al-kitāb. (ٱلْوَلَدُ يَذْهَبُ إِلَى ٱلْمَدْرَسَةِ وَيَقْرَأُ ٱلْكِتَابَ)

"The boy goes to school and reads the book."

This summary contains the two main ideas from the original text in a short form.

Tips for Success

• Do not write every word — only the important ideas.
• Use short, simple sentences.
• Check that your summary makes sense in Arabic.

Real-life application

In Tanzania, listening and summarizing in Arabic is useful when you hear a short announcement at a mosque, a health message on the radio, or instructions from a teacher at a madrasa. For example, if a community leader says "al-yawm jum'a, al-salat ba'da sa'a" (ٱلْيَوْمُ جُمُعَةٌ، ٱلصَّلَاةُ بَعْدَ سَاعَةٍ — "Today is Friday, prayer is after one hour"), you can quickly summarize it for others in your neighborhood who need to know when to go to the mosque.