How Important Is It To Listen To Authentic Native Material In A Second Language?

When it comes to listening to material in your new language, people often shy away from native content as they think they will get to that when they are “ready”. Unfortunately you will never be fully ready and it is much more sensible to start listening to it right now, no matter what your level is.

Listening to native content is important for a number of different reasons, which I will go through below, and basically if you are not listening to it, you will not make as much progress as you could be in your language.  

Listening To Natives Will Give You The Real Speed Of The Language

Probably one of the most important reasons to listen to native content is so that you can actually hear the real speed of the language.

When we are learning a new language we tend to focus on material that is aimed for beginner learners and this is certainly a good thing to do, we need this kind of stuff …but it does have its faults, one of which is its speed.

Most of the beginner material is going to be spoken very slowly and clearly, which is great as we can hear it, but we need to push ourselves and go beyond this.

When we go out into the real world, people will not speak slowly, they will just speak their normal speed and if we are not prepared for that, we are going to be very lost. Of course you can ask people to slow down, but no one wants to be the person always asking for that.

Listening to actual native content is going to give you the real speed of the language and while it is intense at first, you will get used it to it.

The best part is that it doesn’t get any faster than this. Once you can hear a native speak at their normal speed, it isn’t going to get any harder, so it is worth just jumping in to. The sooner you can start getting used to the speed, the sooner you can get comfortable with it.  

Listening To Native Material Will Give You the Real Language

Listening to native content is also going to give you the “real” language. Of course the beginner material is giving you the real language, but it can be a little formal and clunky at times.

Just think about how a textbook will explain something, and then think how a person might explain the same thing. It is going to be very different and this is exactly what happens when you listen to people speak a language compared to what is actually written in the language text books.

Listening to native speakers is actually going to show you how real people talk, which is exactly what you want to know about and aim to understand so that you can actually use the language in real life!  

(You can read more about – Why Do Natives Speakers Seem Different To The Text Books?)

You Will Hear The Grammar Bring Used Naturally

Listening to native content is also going to allow you to hear how the grammar is actually used, as you will find a lot of the strict rules you find in textbooks are going to be bent, if not fully broken.

Hearing naturally used grammar is really important as it will be your goal to eventually use it like this too, so that you actually sound natural and not like some robot.

The only way you are going to be able to do this is to just be exposed to the language and listen to native speakers.

Native Material Will Expose You To Slang 

A large part of the “real” language is slang. Slang words and phrases are going to be used all the time by native speakers and this side of things is usually lacking in the textbooks.

Textbooks will teach you the formal language, but as I’ve already mentioned, this isn’t how things work in the real world. If you actually take the time to listen to native content you are going to hear the slang being used in context and you are just going to get a deeper understanding of the language from doing this.

Listening To Native Material Will Help You With Accents

Accents are usually what throw people off when they are listening. This will even happen in your own language, you may hear someone with a strong accent and have no idea what they are saying.
I know this happens with me all the time. Other English speakers have no idea what I’m saying.

The only way around this to spend more time listening to that particular accent, and you will not get this from learning materials.

You need to listen to native material to hear those different accents, so really this is the only way to overcome any issues you have around hearing different accents. 

Native Material Will Give You the Culture

Understanding the culture around the language you are learning is a really important aspect of language learning that we often forget about, but really it’s rather easy to incorporate to our studies, all we need to do is listen to native content.

The material made for natives, by natives is going to be rich with cultural references and if we are not immersing in this type of material, then we will miss out.

When you look at beginner material, for learners, it’s all very simple stuff and there isn’t a lot of culture. Sure you might get a little bit, but the reality is that native level content is going to be jammed packed with it and this is really what you need to have a proper understanding.   

(You can read more about – How Important Is Cultural Immersion When Learning A Language?)

Listening To Native Material Is The End Goal, So Start Already!

When we take a step back and look at our end goals with the language we are learning …understanding to a native level is probably going to be a part of that goal.

We are going to want to be able to watch any TV show or movie, or just understand what our friends are saying when they talk to us, which really means we need to be listening to a native level and the only way to get this to do it.

We can certainly ease ourselves in with slower beginner material, but really we will need to make the leap and get started with actual native content and listen to actual native speakers.

This is the only way we are going to get there, and while it may be tough, it is going to be worth it.

I would also suggest you start dipping your toes into this now. There is never going to be that perfect moment when you are fully ready. You have to kind of jump in and start swimming.

Yes, you will be a little lost and confused for a while, but keep studying and things will become clearer and before you know it, you will be understanding a lot of what you are hearing and you will be closer to your end goal.  

How Do You Listen To Native Material In Your Second Language?

Hopefully now you can see the importance of listening to native content, but you are probably wondering how you actually go about this.

You will hear this process called “immersion” which really means you are just listening to the language. It is very simple, you just need to find some material and listen to it.

You do need to be able to understand roughly what is going on, but in general, so long as you are listening to the language you will make progress.

I cover all of this in more detail here – What Is Learning A Language By Immersion?

Conclusion

As you can see, immersing in native level content is extremely important for your listening skills and it really is going to make the difference in how much success you see.

You are actually going to be exposed to the real language and see how it is actually used in real life. These little differences from the textbook are going to allow your skills to be much more natural and you will end up being able to use the language in real life much more comfortably than someone who never left the safety of the text books.

I know it can be hard to get started with listening to native level material, but it is certainly worth the effort. 

(You can read more about – Frequently Asked Questions About – Listening In A Language You Are Learning)