Time Frame

• Dedicate time daily to the exercise of listening to spoken Spanish. For at least one hour per day tune everything else out and tune into a radio program. Put everything else aside. In the Handbook of Undergraduate Second Language Education, Carla Meskill writes that technology can make language learning faster, but the learner must be engaged with language in meaningful contexts without interruption so that they are able to construct their own understanding of the system.
  
  

Benefits

• The human brain uses recognizable patterns in language to interpret meaning. In Listening In Language Learning, David Nunan of The English Centre at the University of Hong Kong says that "listening is vital in the language classroom because it provides input for the learner. Listening is thus fundamental to speaking." For a person to recognize these patterns, he has to have had repeated exposure, such as the exposure provided by radio programming.
  
  

Online Radio

• Windows Media Player, RealPlayer or Apple's QuickTime allow you to listen to podcasts and Internet radio. Some online radio programs can be transferred to portable devices. Notes in Spanish has tips about traveling in Spain and news related to Spanish-speaking countries. Coffee Break Espanol is a popular podcast that teaches conversational Spanish. Other online radio stations include Radio Nacional de España, Cadena SER, Radio Centro, Reporte 98.5 and Radio Bilingüe.
  
  

Singing Along

• Improve your pronunciation by singing along with songs that you hear on the radio. Omniglot; Pronunciation and Listening Comprehension suggests that "if you enjoy singing, try learning some songs in the language you're learning." Every time you are in your car, tune your radio to a Spanish-Language radio station. The more you listen, the more you'll begin to recognize the songs and artists that are in heavy rotation. Find the lyrics online and print them out. Then, sing along.
  
  

How to Listen Actively

• Find program schedules so that you can tune into programs that you are interested in. In The Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching and Learning, Eli Hinkel advises that you listen with "the intent to connect the input with relevant knowledge sources for further interpretation. Utilize pacing, pausing, and units of encoding that are unique to the spoken language." Before you schedule radio listening time, review the vocabulary that you've already learned and try to identify those terms. Use those terms to try and understand what you're listening to.