Find a place where you can listen... and do... as much as possible.
I trained in a very sparsely populated part of the UK, and then came to the NorthEast of the US shortly afterwards. The pace, the accents and the terminology (although it is supposed to be standard) was different.
So, I found the best practice was just to listen... trying to understand what was going on... building the mental picture of the situation in my mind. Then formulate reponses to ATC requests in your head, see whether the speed and content of what you are building matches what you are hearing.
Does that make any sense at all... it's kinda late to be trying to make sense... my bed is calling.
There's still an internet feed from Chicago approach here that might provide some good, real world listening fodder.
http://www.cyberair.com/audio/chiapp/index.html