Does Pronunciation Matter When Learning A New Language?

Learning a new language brings up countless questions, but one that consistently causes anxiety amongst learners is: does pronunciation matter?

It's a brilliant question from Jenny in Taiwan, who's currently learning Spanish and wondering whether to focus heavily on pronunciation from the start.

Let me share my perspective on this, because I think there's a lot of confusion around pronunciation that's actually holding people back from making real progress.

If you prefer watching videos to reading, hit play on the video version of this post at the top of this page. Otherwise, here's what you'll discover in this post:

The Difference Between Pronunciation And Accent

Before we dive in, let's differentiate between pronunciation and accent, because for me these are two completely different things.

Pronunciation is how accurately you're able to produce the sounds of the language. In English, we've got all the sounds you can hear in normal speech, but other languages have different sounds.

In Arabic, for example, you have guttural sounds produced using your throat that simply don't exist in English. Every language has these basic sounds that you need to be able to produce correctly.

Accent is something entirely different. For me, the most basic definition of accent is your identity, your regional identity if you like. In the UK, where I'm from, it's a very small country, but we've got so many different accents.

If you travel from Cornwall in the southwest up to Newcastle in the northeast, then to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, you'll encounter accents so varied that some can be quite difficult to understand even for a native speaker.

The important thing to note about accent is that it's first and foremost about identity. If someone approaches me in the street speaking with a Scottish accent, I don't think about the accent itself. I think mainly about the place they're from.

As a learner, your accent (your identity) is something that's going to develop over a very long time, so I wouldn't worry about particular accents just yet. Focus instead on the basic pronunciation of the sounds in the language.

Why Perfect Accent Isn't Everything: The Tomás Story

When I was in Asia, I noticed it's quite common for teachers, especially local English teachers, to be very insistent about speaking with a perfect accent.

I knew many people whose teachers told them they must speak with perfect English accent or RP (received pronunciation), and these students had the impression that if they didn't speak with a perfect English accent, they were no good.

I think this is a very misguided way to look at it, and let me tell you why.

I always come back to my best friend Tomás when I think about this question. He's from Spain, from the Canary Islands to be exact. I first met him in London many years ago, and we used to hang out constantly.

Out of everybody I've ever met in my life, this guy was incredible with people. He could make friends with random strangers wherever he was – on a bus, on the street.

He had such an incredible way with people that he had them in the palm of his hand. People just loved him because he was funny, outgoing and friendly. He's one of those people who makes you feel great.

Here's the thing though: his English was terrible. Not only was his grammar awful, but he had a very strong Spanish accent. If you just listened to his voice, you'd think, “This guy needs to do a bit of work on his English.”

Yet he was able to go out and have the most incredible time, meeting so many people. This was a real eye-opener for me. Here he was in my country, spending time with me and my friends, and he had more friends than anybody.

I learned then that the secret to having a great life, enjoying it and meeting people has nothing to do with your linguistic ability. It's much more about the personality of the person you're speaking with.

Tomás could speak to me in awful English with a terrible accent (he wouldn't mind me saying this because he has this philosophy too), but I didn't care because I liked his personality so much that the way he was speaking simply didn't matter.

When Does Pronunciation Matter? A Contrasting Example

However, I've got another friend, another Spanish friend who lives in London, and this provides the caveat to my Tomás story.

When he speaks to me in English, he's got an awful English accent – really difficult to listen to. He speaks English as if he was speaking Spanish, and there have been times when I simply cannot follow him.

In Spanish, you have quite a monotone way of speaking. It's what's known as a syllable-timed language, without the same range of expression as English. If you speak English with a standard Spanish accent in this way, it's quite difficult to listen to.

I love this friend dearly, but I insist on speaking Spanish with him because I simply cannot listen to his English. It almost hurts my ears. I know this sounds harsh, but I'm being honest with you – this is genuinely how I feel about it.

In this case, pronunciation is such a big deal that I insist on speaking Spanish with him.

So Does Pronunciation Matter? My Practical Advice

What I take away from these contrasting examples is that pronunciation is important, and it's something you should focus on from the start of your language learning journey.

As you're learning Spanish, Jenny, I think it's very important to focus on correct pronunciation from the beginning.

I'm not worried about whether you're speaking with an accent from Spain, Colombia or Venezuela – that doesn't matter. But you do need to be able to pronounce the basic sounds of Spanish accurately:

• strong vowel sounds
• strong consonant sounds
• and the rolled R.

It's quite important that you spend time with a native speaker or tutor who can show you exactly how to form these sounds, especially the rolled R. You're going to want to learn to say that properly from the beginning.

Key Takeaways For Pronunciation Practice

Here's what you need to focus on:

• Work with a tutor initially: The basic sounds of the language are really important to get right at the beginning. You can listen and learn that way, but it's much more beneficial to spend time with a tutor who can correct you and give you feedback.
• Do lots of listening: There are fantastic resources available, especially for Spanish. You've got access to a huge number of video resources and websites that can really help you.
• Don't let it hold you back: However well you learn to pronounce sounds in a classroom, it's very different when you head out into the real world and start speaking with real people. In the middle of a conversation, you can't think quickly enough about tongue and mouth positioning – you have to speak quickly.
• It develops over time: Being able to speak a language well with correct pronunciation and natural accent only comes from spending many years actually speaking it. It's not the case that you learn correct pronunciation first, then speak. You have to do it all at the same time.

Does Pronunciation Matter FAQ

The Bottom Line: Does Pronunciation Matter?

So here are my two main takeaways for you, Jenny:

1. Right at the beginning, spend time with a tutor who can correct your pronunciation and show you how to pronounce the basic sounds of the language correctly.
2. Don't worry about it after that. Get out there, keep learning, keep speaking and stay aware of your pronunciation, but don't let it hold you back.

The quality of someone's accent and the accuracy of their language isn't what I'm thinking about when I meet them – it's much more about their personality.

But you do need to be understood, and that's where focusing on accurate pronunciation of basic sounds becomes crucial.

Pronunciation matters for communication, but perfection doesn't. Focus on being understood rather than sounding like a native speaker, and you'll find much more success and enjoyment in your language learning journey.

Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.