Spanish

Note some of these are affiliate links – that means if you decide to buy the product I get a small but welcomed commission! I have used every one of these myself and thought they were useful. 

Books

DELE exam preparation books. Note these are not just useful for exam preparation – they have reading/listening/writing/oral exercises with an answer key so are super useful for practice even if you don’t plan to take the exam.  The links here are to the C1 level books but other levels are available too.  If you do plan to use them for exam preparation Cronómetro is the best as it gives tips and strategies about time management and how to approach each section, as well as the practice exams themselves. I used it myself for B1, B2 and C1 exam preparation and it really helped me. 

Cronómetro

https://amzn.to/4cyxi2k

Edelsa (note for this one that the ‘claves’ answer key is sold separately)

https://amzn.to/4cvaPmR

Other books

Palabra por palabra

Designed for A level students but was truly invaluable to me as a B1/B2/C1 student.  Separated into topics, with really great sentences and phrases for use in written and oral work (for example ‘la mejor solución sería que el gobierno pusiera en marcha un programa de gran envergadura…..)

https://amzn.to/4cuc6u9

Edelsa – uso interactivo del vocabulario 

These books are not cheap but are so useful.  Separated into topics, each one has a variety of different exercises to get you to use vocabulary in different ways. The B2-C1 in particular is excellent – I still refer to it now. Incidentally they would also probably  make good books for teachers to base lessons on.

A1-B1

https://amzn.to/3zsMwqS

B2-C2

https://amzn.to/3VSv6f6

Podcasts

Spanish language coach

There are podcasts in three levels, but the advanced ones are particularly good – I’ve been learning for 10 years and I still pick up a new word or phrase from each episode. The topics are interesting and engaging and transcripts are available

Notes in Spanish 

The podcasts are free (and there is also a YouTube channel nowadays) but you can also buy transcripts etc.  This is the one resource that I recommend to absolutely every person who asks me for advice about Spanish! There are beginner, intermediate, advanced, and gold seasons (in the gold one they explain in English afterwards some of the grammatical points). They speak clearly, in the higher levels include words and phrases that I never encountered in a class, and talk about genuinely interesting topics in manageable episodes of 15 minutes or so. 

News in slow Spanish 

Does what it says! A recap of the week’s most important news stories, in slow Spanish. It works well because you are likely to have read or heard the news stories already, so when you hear them again in Spanish you can relate it to what you know already and pick up new vocabulary. 

Radio ambulante 

A Latin American podcast that tells the stories of everyday people. The stories are interesting and it gives the chance to listen to a different accent to castellano

Así como suena

Similar to Radio Ambulante, again with some interesting stories and a variety of accents.