The myth that “Speakers who mix two languages have low levels of language ability” is a fallacy. The fact that one learns and converses in more than one language implies that they have a better perspective of language (Hall, Vitanova, " Marchenkova, 2013). There are some common general principles that guide vocabulary usage in different languages. Such similarities make one master the art of speech and writing since they are capable of having an in-depth look from a point of information and sense of comparison.
The myth regarding language deficiency among bilingual individuals is based on a misconstrued perception regarding the limitation of a human brain. The brain has the ability to learn all knowledge regarding human civilization and still have room for more (Cotton, Falvey, Kent, Lebeau, " Rees, 2015). In that regard, learning just two languages does not in any way jeopardize the ability of one mastering one or all of them. Therefore, it is not right to assume that individuals who can speak more than one language have some element of deficiency as far as the languages are concerned.
The process of learning a language is neither genetic nor time-bound. There is no natural attribute that is associated with people from a given region of the world that make them have a higher affinity of mastering a given language (Newman, Baayen, " Rice, 2011). Furthermore, one does not have to learn a language right from when they are little children in order to be a fluent speaker. Besides, one does not have to spend years learning and practicing a language to be among the best in it. Different people have varied degrees of grasping new knowledge (Hall, Vitanova, " Marchenkova, 2013). In that regard, there are some even in their adulthood from perceived incompatible parts of the world who are capable of mastering a language by learning it for say only two years. That way, they will still speak their childhood language and remain excellent speakers of the newly learnt language. Clearly, it is a wrong myth to believe that people who speak more than one language have low levels of language ability.
References
Cotton, D., Falvey, D., Kent, S., Lebeau, I., " Rees, G. (2015). New language leader: Advanced Coursebook / Cotton, Falvey, Kent, Lebeau, Rees. Harlow, Essex, England Pearson Education Limited.
Hall, J. K., Vitanova, G., " Marchenkova, L. (2013). Dialogue with Bakhtin on second and foreign language learning: New perspectives. London : Routledge.
Newman, J., Baayen, R. H., " Rice, S. (2011). Corpus-based studies in language use, language learning, and language documentation. Amsterdam, NY: Editions Rodopi.
