Is it important to sound native in my second language?

Pipplet Team • mars 09, 2020

Keep calm... and forget about sounding native

Language learners tend to get hung up on sounding like a native in their second language, believing that sounding native means sounding fluent. Well, you’ll be glad to know that this is simply not the case. Here are some reasons why sounding native isn’t a priority and why focusing too much on perfecting your native accent might even be affecting how well you’re learning English.

Accent vs pronunciation - What’s the difference?

Many language learners, and often language assessors, confuse accent and pronunciation. However, these must be considered as two separate aspects of language and the language learning process. As an English learner, you should focus on your pronunciation and not your accent. Only change your native accent if it’s causing you to mispronounce words in English as this could leave you feeling embarrassed or misunderstood. An effective way to practice your pronunciation is through imitation. Next time you listen to a song or watch a film in English, try repeating what you hear out loud, it works a treat!

Be proud of your accent, it's a part of you!


Carrying your native accent into your second language is natural and, in my opinion, something to embrace and be proud of. Your accent represents your culture, history and identity and variety in language is an enriching quality. Can you imagine if we all sounded the same? Wouldn’t that be boring? Not to mention, speaking about your cultural background is a great conversation starter or point of reference for an interview, an English oral exam or if you meet a new friend abroad.


It’s what you say, not how you say it


When you’re learning a second language, communication is key and the rest will come with time (I’ll come back to this!). It’s important that you are able to communicate effectively so that your listener can understand what you want to express when you speak. If you focus excessively on your accent and sounding like a native English speaker, you could end up neglecting essential aspects of communication skills such as pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary or listening. If you’re thinking less about how you sound, you will be more aware of what you’re actually saying and what other people are saying to you. 

Watch, listen, imitate and learn

I can’t stress enough the importance of imitating others as a way to improve your communication skills and, in particular, your pronunciation. Just 5 minutes spent speaking out loud each day in English can hugely boost your confidence and improve aspects of speech such as speech flow and intonation. Effective ways to do this, as I briefly mentioned above, are singing your favourite English song out loud, or repeating what you hear on the radio, a podcast, something you’ve picked up in conversation or read in a book. Even if you don’t understand it, say it out loud to exercise your mouth and tongue appropriately. Remember, speaking another language doesn’t only require the use of your brain, it also requires training your mouth and tongue to move in different ways than they are used to, in order to produce new sounds. 

...and the rest will come with time

Learning another language is an ongoing process and there is always something more that you can and will learn in time. Start by focusing on communicating, or, in other words, getting your message across successfully; although it can be tempting to try and get everything right straight away, multitasking is not necessarily a good thing when you’re learning a new language. The more you practice communicating in English, the more confident you’ll become; and the more confident you become, the more fluent you’ll be. Only ever aim to improve your fluency and forget about how native you sound as this will not benefit your English communication skills, in any context. And, last but by no means least, don’t forget to be patient and give yourself, your brain and your tongue the time they need to learn and progress.

Jennifer has worked at Pipplet since 2018. She handles our English language evaluations. Apart from Pipplet, she is a self-employed translator and ESL teacher.
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