Debunking myths and legends in language learning is a
Sisyphus-like task, and not a day passes by that I have to bite my tongue and
hold my horses when I hear someone telling me harebrained idiocies about the
nature of language, on how best to acquire a foreign language, and what to do
to speed up the process, mainly as a result of legendary myths ingrained in the
average human brain.
For example:
Native speakers are authorities
on their language, regardless of their cultural background and formal
education. In my opinion this myth stems from the fact that all monolinguists
are cut from the same cloth: they believe they are masters of their tongue
simply because they learnt it from birth and it is the only one they speak. They
take it for granted that a Rumanian, for instance, speaks Rumanian perfectly
just because he was born in Rumania and is a native. I say that a native
speaker with a Ph.D. in English does not have the same proficiency as a High
School dropout.
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