I thought I would share this with other students of the Spanish language.
I’ve been through a half-dozen Spanish home-study courses over the last couple of years. I have learned a lot, and can usually express my thoughts when I want to say something. However, I have a lot of trouble understanding the rapid-fire Spanish spoken in everyday situations.
I’ve been searching for an intermediate course that emphasizes listening comprehension. I found a web page that has audios of news reports along with written texts so you can follow along. This has helped me a lot. Some pages also have quizzes to help you understand things like: Imperfect vs. Perfect tense, and Reflexive/Pronominal verbs, etc.
If you’re interested, check out:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/news/topic/
They even have excerpts from pop songs with English/Spanish translations.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/songs/
They also have beginning courses and it is all free.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/
No, I do not work for the BBC.
I hope this helps someone.