ABSTRACT
Bilingualism is a fact of life for the vast majority of the world's populations. It is estimated that as much as two-thirds of the people in the world are bilingual. This chapter presents five prevalent myths about bilingualism and the research evidence and facts that disprove them. This monolingual view is clearly seen in how bilinguals are defined—many people think that a bilingual is two monolinguals put together in one person. The second myth was the belief that immigrants are staying in ghettos and not learning English. The third was that contrary to a popular assumption that earlier is better when it comes to learning a second language, research evidence for a critical period for second language acquisition is mixed. The fourth myth was that immigrant parents should speak in the societal language with their children to help them succeed academically. The final was that bilingual education is often wrongly blamed for the poor academic performance of language minority children.
