I have found the fastest way to boost an intermediate student's listening skills is to have them use a transcript. Use something like the news stories on www.bbc.co.uk, where a transcript is provided. Another option is a recording of an English book, where you can read along. You can then see the new vocabulary, hear it pronounced, know how it is spelled, and make a written record of it for review. Alternatively, listen to English with English subtitles for the hard of hearing. Make notes of words you do not know, and look them up later. 5-10 minutes of this at a time is sufficient. I do this with my students. I assure you it is the fastest way for them to progress.

Your listening skills will improve as you get more practice with whatever language you're studying. I've posted this answer to similar questions, so maybe you'll find some of these suggestions helpful. There's lots of resources for learning and practicing English to be found through links on the pink stripe at the top of this webpage. You might try checking out "Find a Language Partner" or "Groups" or the English blackboard. Below I've listed some other tips that don't necessarily involve this site. 1. Practice speaking English, preferably with a native speaker, but any ways you can practice will help. Practicing on the phone is probably the hardest because you can't rely on hand gestures. 2. Record yourself speaking English. Maybe you can even do this on your cellphone. Then play it back and listen for anything you could pronounce more clearly. Also, if you record a sample, you can play it back months later to see how much you've improved. 3. Listen to songs in English. Especially if you know or want to learn the lyrics, this is a fun way to work on pronunciation and vocabulary. 4. You can also watch TV shows or movies in English. This option is especially easy if you find a TV series or type of movie you particularly like. 5. Listen to an audio book in English. This could potentially also give you something to talk about if you find English-speaking chatting partners. 6. Practice reading tongue twisters: http://www.uebersetzung.at/twister/en.htm 7. Play telephone with your friends: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Whisper (The game has another name which I learned about just now.) 8. Drill yourself as much as possible. You might find some computer software the best way to facilitate this drilling. If you want to use a computer, find software that incorporates speaking into a microphone. Some software will compare your voice to a native speaker and allow you to drill until you consistently reach a certain percentage match in the comparison.