Syv myter om begyndersprog

In the article the authors have selected seven myths about beginners’ language for discussion, re-flection and possible rejection. These are (1) the myth about the necessity of mastering the system before being able to speak the language, (2) the myth about limited capacity on the ‘hard disc’, (3) the myth about ‘the only thing’ (the method), (4) the myth about “we tried that before”, (5) the myth about “one people and one teaching method, (6) the myth about easy and difficult languages, and (7) the myth about students with no competences and a worthless past. The article suggests lan-guage teachers to use a ‘myth-detector’ to detect, reflect on and possibly reject myths they may meet in their profession. The ‘myth-detector’ consists of four simple questions, namely (1) Where do we know it from? (2) What is it built on? (3) What views on learning, language and culture lie behind? and (4) Who (gets something out of) say(ing)s it?