Good pronunciation has two main benefits.
Intelligibility
First, it makes you easier to understand. If you’ve ever heard people speaking English with a heavy foreign accent, you know it can be extremely difficult to understand!
If you don’t want your Spanish to be like that, you must learn the rules of Spanish pronunciation. They’re not hard to learn, but it takes practice to master them.
Faster learning
Second—and quite unexpectedly—good pronunciation helps you learn faster.
Many studies have shown that your pronunciation affects your ability to perceive foreign sounds—and vice-versa. This is because the way that you represent words in memory is based (in part) on how you say them.
If you learn Spanish with a heavy accent, you’re essentially doubling the effort required—you’re learning two languages. One language is for when you are speaking, and the other is for when others are speaking to you. Your brain will need to constantly translate between your version of Spanish and the one used by native speakers.
More work, slower progress. And (did we mention), you’ll be hard to understand.
This doesn’t mean your pronunciation has to be perfect. Just get reasonably close, and you’ll minimize the discrepancy. The sounds of English are close enough to Spanish that it’s not hard for English speakers to learn a reasonable accent.
How to learn
SuperCoco contains a complete pronunciation course—covering every sound in Spanish. We recommend that you start it at the very beginning of your Spanish studies, and be mindful of your pronunciation at all times. If it feels awkward, that’s a good sign. Over time, your pronunciation will improve dramatically and will feel more and more natural.
Is native-like pronunciation even possible for an adult learner? Many say that only children can acquire a native accent—but that’s wrong. There are plenty of documented cases of adult learners whose accent is essentially native. It’s not easy and takes sustained effort—but it can be done.