The News in Simplified Arabic is posted to the web twice monthly and delivers a survey of the previous two weeks' news in simplified standard Arabic. Listeners of Voice of America's "Special English" broadcasts will recognize the slightly slower rate of speech and textual redundancy which characterize these webcasts.

Why? In earlier times, the news was easy to understand. The formulaic messages were predictable and the diction clear and slow. But since the advent of modern media outlets such as Al Jazeera Al Arabiya, newscasts feature telegraphic speech and fast diction. Our webcasts serve as a stepping stone between the teacher talk of the classroom and the "real" Arabic of the media.