Arabic and Hindi speaking Australian residents are big consumers of ethnic media, even though most speak English well.

A survey by social research agency McNair Ingenuity Research shows that the propensity with which the 4.62 million ethnic Australians speak their own language at home does not mirror their ability to speak English, nor is it proportionate with the amount of ethnic media listened to, watched or read.

Of the 111,351 Australians who speak Hindi at home, three quarters speak English very well and a third consume Hindi media such as movies, radio and newspapers.

Similarly of the 287,175 Arabic speakers, 45 per cent speak English very well and nearly 50 per cent consume media in Arabic.

"This is the effect of the Indian love of Bollywood movies, or in the case of the Islamic Arabic community, because the content supports their faith," lead researcher Matt Balogh says.

The survey reviewed the top 13 languages spoken at home, speakers' geographic location, English proficiency and the proportion of in-language media consumed.

Of the top 13 languages spoken at home, less than half - or an average of 43 per cent of respondents - spoke English very well. In addition, an average of 40 per cent of respondents speaking languages including Arabic, Punjabi, Greek and Hindi, also chose to consume media in their own language.

The top five languages spoken at home, other than English are collectively Cantonese and Mandarin, (more than 600,000 speakers nationally), followed by Italian, Arabic and Greek (839,225 speakers).

"The reason for this growing demand for in-language media is a cultural connection," says Balogh. "Rather than a language barrier, it's religious or cultural beliefs and traditions that are motivating media consumption, as well as the opportunity to access the variety of in-language content.

"In addition, respondents speaking the top five languages are choosing to live in close-knit urban communities, such as Sydney or Melbourne, surrounded by their own culture and where they are able to keep traditions alive," he says.

By contrast, the survey revealed Germans in Australia speak their own language the least, with more than 76 per cent highly proficient in English and only 15 per cent consuming media in German. Germans were also least likely to maintain the cultural traditions from their country of origin.

Lee Hubber, director of ethnic media representation company Spots and Space says the findings prove that the desire for migrants to connect with their culture becomes stronger the longer they are settled in Australia. "That is why multi-cultural media, across all platforms, has continued to grow strongly in recent years," he says. "Marketers need to be communicating via in-language media if they want to effectively tap into multi-cultural Australia and really create an emotional connection with those audiences."

The findings come from 13 telephone surveys conducted between 2011 and 2014, including over 5,200 speakers of languages other than English.

On our homepage: An Indian family from the Spots and Space website