Although a growing body of research points to the potential benefits of bilingual education, there are a number of commonly held beliefs that run counter to research findings. Based on current research, this digest clarifies some of the myths and misconceptions surrounding language use and bilingual education in the United States. The fallacies highlighted include: (1) English is losing ground to other languages in the United States; (2) newcomers to the United States are learning English more slowly than in previous generations; (3) the best way to learn a language is through "total immersion"; (4) children learning English are retained too long in bilingual classrooms, at the expense of English acquisition; (5) school districts provide bilingual instruction in scores of native languages; (6) bilingual education means instruction mainly in students' native languages, with little instruction in English; (7) bilingual education is far more costly than English language instruction; (8) disproportionate dropout rates for Hispanic students demonstrate the failure of bilingual education; (9) research is inconclusive on the benefits of bilingual education; and (10) language-minority parents do not support bilingual education because they feel it is more important for their children to learn English than to maintain the native language (Contains 15 references.) (JL)