When you’re learning a language, one of the hardest skills to acquire can be good listening skills. Being able to listen, decode and understand a language spoken at a natural pace can be extremely challenging. For this reason, having a good supply of interesting, clear, and easy to understand things to listen to is a great help. Here are some great places to find listening resources.

• 6 Minute English, and other content from BBC Learning English. This is a weekly programme covering current affairs, explaining topics in easy to understand language, while highlighting and exploring key vocabulary items throughout each episode. While 6 Minute English might be aimed at older students, there are plenty of other shows from the same team aimed at all different levels. Look out for the next article in the Listening Skills series for more great content from the BBC.

• British Council – Stories, songs and articles mostly aimed at younger students. Again, these are very easy to listen to since they are read slowly and clearly. They all have a transcript to help if you need it and many have associated games or quizzes.

• Reading i-Learner – Reading i-Learner has been going for over 10 years and has 1000s of listening exercises all with transcripts and quizzes to test your comprehension. You can always go back to previous weeks to practise again and again if you want to!