NCERT Books

Why Speaking Practice with Natives Isn’t Really Useful?

Why Speaking Practice with Natives Isn’t Really Useful

English speaking is an essential part of modern lives, and people often believe that speaking to any native speaker will boost up their chances of learning the language. During any comparison, native speakers are mostly preferred while enhancing speaking skills than a non-native speaker.

But, what do the facts state about this matter? Is speaking practice with Native helpful? Or is it just a myth of the people?

Apparently, this is more of hype and a myth than a reality. Speaking practices with the native speakers might even fail the chances of even clearing the initial hurdles. Such conversations do not get the seed to start, and if by any chance they do, they only last at most 1 to 2 sessions. Thus, the learners keep on changing the speaking partners every few days and increasing an unnecessary hassle of speaking fluent English.

Gather Information Regarding Basic English Skills and become proficient in the language and speak fluently with confidence. Try the Tips over here and Improve your English Writing and Speaking Skills.

Native Speakers do not know the Problem behind Learning English.

For native speakers, English is their mother tongue. How do we learn the native languages? Do we need any hardcore practice to be the masters of its speaking skills? Do you even remember learning any grammar rules before learning the native language?

Some of you might do, but for most of us, the answer is a big NO!

Well, people mostly learn their native language naturally by listening to their family members, relatives, and other people around speaking in it when they are too young (or I should say just the babies).

Now the point where the most of the problem starts is that since we learn our native language without any practice, we are not sure about the various concepts and building blocks to start with the entire learning process of it. The primary issue while practising English speaking with native speakers is that they will surely spot the mistakes that the learner is making. Still, they won’t be able to suggest the best way of improving or the next step to be followed for effective learning. And this is only because they never try learning the same from scratch and thus do not have a clear idea about the basic rules to be kept in mind initially before starting the speaking practices.

The difference in skill levels can lower the experience.

Have you ever gone for playing any new game in which you are a beginner, but the one you are competing with is a pro and a champion in the same? If yes, then this point will be easily relatable and understandable for you.

Such situations result in a poor experience for both the involved parties. This would hardly result in some satisfying moves, and the game in such a situation mostly ends with one-sided outcomes.

Similarly, the conversation practice with any native speaker and a new learner might also turn out to be one-sided due to the difference in the skill levels of both the people. Thus, it would result in a duller experience and might not be suitable beyond a few sessions.

Native speakers have hard to understand the accent, making learning more difficult.

Native speakers of any language have a different accent than the regular speakers and the learners of the language. Additionally, the native speakers go for a common practice of linking, i.e., combing some words together and then speaking/ pronouncing them together like a single word.

Because of the different accents and practice of linking, it gets difficult for the non-native speakers to understand all that their native partner is saying.

Other differences might also lead to a dead end.

As the culture and background changes between the language learner and its native speakers, the interest factors also change a bit. For example, there might be a difference of choice for sports, movie tastes, song albums, or much more. Due to the lack of common factors of interests, the more extended conversations might not get much chance to sustain, and it might just end in a few sessions.

This is not an impossible task for the people of different backgrounds to talk for hours, but it might be a bit more complicated and challenging. This is only because it requires some extra efforts to keep the conversation going on when there is not much to talk about. And thus, such conversations do not turn out more fruitful and lively.

Other reasons why learning isn’t more effective with native learners:

There are many more issues while practising the language speaking with any native learners. Other more common issues rising here are as follows:

Native speakers might also be helpful in some situations.

There might be specific scenarios where you need a change of accent to a language’s native accent and some change in pronunciation ways. This might be whenever there is a job or academic requirement for the same. In such situations, learning with native speakers is highly preferable.

Learning pronunciations is a best practice to be followed with some native speakers. Most of the non-native speakers might miss-pronounce many words, but this issue eradicates while learning with a native speaker. The reason behind the miss pronunciation might be that they heard it wrong or that they are unable to pronounce it due to a change in the accent correctly. With native speakers, even if the communication is mostly one way and unclear most of the time, you can still learn correct pronunciation for several words.

What is the best practice?

Other best practice that one must go for while learning any language is to choose any tutor. The reason why a tutor is more preferred than a native speaker is:

  1. Tutors work harder for making sure that the learner understands everything well. They might also lower their dialect and break down the sentences for making everything easier for you.
  2. They will also help you out when you run out of the conversation topics, and research to come up with the right topic for you to talk about.
  3. The will never prefer learning your language instead of teaching them the language that you desire.

Conclusion

This is not about why one must avoid a native speaker while learning any language. But, the main agenda behind this is to give you a brief on the right facts associated with learning a language with a native speaker and the hurdles that you might need to face.

Learning a language is not wrong neither with a native speaker nor a non-native speaker, but the main challenge is the amount of effort that adds up when it comes to the former one.

Exit mobile version