One of the best ways to learn Spanish and improve your level is by reading Spanish news articles for students and watching or listening to the news in Spanish.
Reading and watching the news in Spanish will provide you with a lot of advantages, like:
- Useful vocabulary on a variety of topics
- Modern-day language that is not outdated
- Examples of grammatical structures used in different contexts
- Fun and interesting topics to learn about and think over
- Effective practice of your reading and/or listening skills
Reading the news in Spanish to learn the language is very beneficial. (1) But to maximize the effect, you need to do it right.
Before we go on to some of the best sources of Spanish news articles for students, let me give you some advice on how to read and watch the news in the most effective way to improve your Spanish.
How to best use Spanish news articles for students
Choose a resource that matches your level and interests.
If the level is too high, you might be discouraged, and if it’s too low, you will probably bored. The same is true for the topics that don’t match your interest: if you are not at all interested in economics, reading a magazine on economics would probably bore you or discourage you from learning further.
The news sources below will be for different levels – choose the ones that fit you best. If you are a beginner, you can also check out these Spanish podcasts for beginners to help you learn Spanish.
Write out useful vocabulary and grammar.
You can write out new vocabulary or «old» vocabulary in new contexts. To make your learning even more effective you can create flashcards with this vocabulary for further practice. You can read more about using flashcards and some of the best flashcard apps in this article.
Don’t worry if something goes wrong or is hard.
Regular practice is key when learning Spanish. The same is true for Spanish news articles for students in particular. To get used to the language, accumulate vocabulary, and make progress you need to read or watch the news regularly – ideally, on a daily basis. Regular practice and reviewing are among the habits of the most successful language learners.
As you can see, there is nothing super-hard and mysterious here! Using these tips and some of the resources listed below, you can improve your Spanish level very quickly.
If you need more tips for learning Spanish, take a look at this article, it has some very useful ideas.
Best sources of news in Spanish
Spanish news articles for students are easily available on the Internet for free – isn’t that great? To save you some time, I have collected some of the best sources of news in Spanish for learners, each with a short description for you to be able to quickly choose what fits you best.
1. Practica Español
Level: beginner – intermediate; there are some advanced materials as well.
Format: news articles, video, audio.
Materials on this website are graded by level – you can easily see what fits you, and what may be too easy or too hard. Apart from news articles and videos, you can vocabulary and grammar practice to supplement your learning.
There is also a «Music» section, where you can discover some Spanish-language musicians.
https://www.practicaespanol.com/
2. News In Slow Spanish
Level: intermediate; but the website also has resources for beginners as well as advanced learners.
Format: the main format is audio/podcast, with some text articles as well.
The presenters of this website speak in slow and clear Spanish, quite easy to understand. You can choose between the Spanish spoken in Spain and the Spanish of Latin America. You can use the website or download an app. Some paid content is offered, but there is more than enough free content to get you started.
https://www.newsinslowspanish.com/
3. Online Newspaper List
Level: intermediate – advanced.
Format: the site itself contains only links to newspapers, on whose websites you can find articles to read and usually also videos to watch.
On this website, you can look for newspapers from different countries. When you click on a country, say, Spain or Colombia, you can see a list of newspaper websites that you can visit. There are also usually links to the country’s top TV-channels, so you can watch some news as well.
However, this material is not adapted for learners. If your level of Spanish is relatively low, you may find it hard to understand most of the news.
https://onlinenewspaperlist.com/
4. El País
Level: intermediate – advanced.
Format: news articles.
El País (meaning «The Country») is a well-known Spanish newspaper with its headquarters in Madrid in Spain — it is one of the most widely read newspapers in Spain. El País caters to more than just readers in Spain. There is a Spain-oriented section for Spanish news, but also an America-oriented section if you’re more interested in Latin America.
There is also an English edition of the newspaper. You will find a lot of similar articles in English as well as Spanish. While they may not be exact translations of each other, you can read the English article before or after reading the Spanish one (depending on your level) to help or check your comprehension.
https://elpais.com/
5. RTVE
Level: intermediate – advanced.
Format: audio, video, with some text.
RTVE is the largest public audiovisual group in Spain that offers TV channels, radio stations, and news articles. On the website, you can find TV as well as audio news on different topics to watch online. For your convenience, you can download the RTVE app and watch the news on your smartphone or tablet.
6. BBC Mundo
Level: intermediate – advanced.
Format: news articles, with some video.
The BBC World (Mundo) Service is a great resource because it provides news in dozens of languages – including Spanish. The BBC Mundo page is easy to navigate and you can select news based on the topics that interest you, like science or culture, for instance.
The online news site offers also a video section where you can also listen to Spanish news, a very interesting option to improve your listening and pronunciation skills.
This is only a selection of Spanish news articles for students, but it should be quite enough to get you started. And you will definitely find something that matches your level and interests. Don’t forget to use the learning tips mentioned above to make your learning more efficient – and you will improve your Spanish level greatly in no time!