Summary: Language strategies for bilingual families

[Gordon, Peter]

Nitya,
 
Thanks for that summary on OPOL strategies.  It seems to me that learning to be bilingual in the early stages is relatively easy regardless of the conditions of input.  What is harder is to maintain a language that is not the dominant one of the culture as the child gets older and goes to school etc.  I'm wondering if the OPOL strategy helps in the language maintenance function if the child learns that one of the parents will only communicate in the non-dominant language.  I think this often works when a child has parents or grandparents who really don't speak the local language.  I wonder if it would be too hard to maintain all communication in the non-dominant language though if the parent really did speak the local language.
 
Peter Gordon

	-----Original Message----- 
	From: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of Nitya Sethuraman 
	Sent: Tue 6/15/2004 5:17 PM 
	To: info-childes at mail.talkbank.org 
	Cc: 'Nitya Sethuraman' 
	Subject: Summary: Language strategies for bilingual families
	
	

	Hello,
	
	I posted a question last week regarding language strategies used by
	bilingual families, and in particular, the one-person, one-language strategy
	(OPOL). 
	
	I would like to thank Barbara Conboy, Jeff Fisher, Gary Morgan, Ana
	Schwartz, Johanne Paradis, Barbara Pearson, Elena Nicoladis, Hazel See,
	Kathryn King, Mayr Erbaugh, Marie-Rose Bomgren, and Fred Genesee for their
	informative responses.
	
	Below is a summary, divided into general comments (anonymous, since it
	wasn't always clear to me who wanted to be cited) and a list of suggested
	references:
	
	
	General Comments:
	
	"There is no empirical evidence showing that this [OPOL] is the best way to
	raise a child bilingually. There might be evidence (i.e. case studies)
	showing that it works well, but not to the exclusion of other approaches, at
	least none that I'm aware of. In fact, Naomi Goodz did a study quite some
	time ago (in the early 90's maybe) in which she found that parents who swore
	that they used the one-person, one-language strategy actually didn't."
	
	
	"There are lots of studies about this saying that adults give more
	complexity and richness in the input if they use an L1 with their child but
	I wanted to just say that I raised by daughter bilingually by both parents
	speaking their own L1 as it was just a lot easier for us. And one parent one
	language isn't 100% of the time just most of the time I think"
	
	
	"I do not know of any evidence suggesting that the one parent one
	language is better. Rather, it is a common practice. Indeed work by Ana
	Celia Zentella (check out her book "Growing up bilingual") provides case
	study evidence of how good children are at code switching and responding to
	appropriate register, in families in which multiple languages are spoken by
	both parents."
	
	
	"I know that in Miami, where I did a lot of research, one-parent
	one-language is NOT the norm (but the Latin community there is also not
	particularly successful at helping the next generation be truly bilingual)."
	
	
	"Ronjat followed that rule (citing a guy named Grammont-- I think that's the
	spelling) on the grounds that one person-one language would be less
	confusing for children. He then goes through his book soundly congratulating
	himself on his success in not confusing his child.  The research since then
	I think has been fairly convincing in showing that it is actually quite hard
	to confuse children with two languages in the input so I doubt there is
	anything to the rule of Grammont. But I don't know of anyone who has
	addressed that empirically.
	The use of one parent-one language in research comes up when research
	questions are about bilingual children's language choice. It's easier to go
	to one place (i.e., the home) and find the two languages used than it is to
	visit the school once and the home another time. I've had to do the latter
	on one occasion when the child heard one language at home and one language
	at daycare. It was a pain."
	
	
	References:
	
	Baker, Colin (1995/2000).  "A Parents' & Teachers guide to bilingualism".
	Clevedon:  Multilingual Matters. 
	
	Includes a discussion of other strategies besides OPOL.
	
	
	Barron-Hauwaert, Suzanne (2004).  Language Strategies for Bilingual
	Families:  The one-parent - one-language Approach.  Multilingual Matters.
	
	2 chapters on other strategies for language use within the family and
	concludes with suggestions of how the OPOL can be adapted for use in the
	21st century.
	
	
	De Houwer, A. 1999. Environmental factors in early bilingual development:
	the role of parental beliefs and attitudes.  Bilingualism and migration, ed.
	by G. Extra and L.Verhoeven, 75-95.  New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
	
	
	Deuchar, Margaret and Suzanne Quay (2000).  Bilingual Acquisition:
	Theoretical Implications of a Case Study. Oxford; New York:  Oxford
	University Press.
	
	
	Döpke, Susanne (1998).  Can the principle of 'one person-one language' be
	disregarded as unrealistically elitist?. Australian Review of Applied
	Linguistics, 21, 1, 41-56. 
	
	
	Döpke, Susanne (1992).  One Parent, One Language: An Interactional Approach.
	Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : J. Benjamins Pub. Co.
	
	
	Fisher, Jeff (JFisher777 at aol.com) is currently doing a qualitative research
	project on a 2 year old that is in a foreign environment and exposed to
	multiple languages. 
	
	
	Genesee, Fred, Johanne Paradis, and Martha B. Crago (2004).  Dual Language
	Development & Disorders:  A Handbook on Bilingualism and Second Language
	Learners.  Brooks Publishing Company.
	
	In chapters 1 and 8 in particular we discuss different choices families make
	in how to make their children bilingual, and how to deal with these choices
	if their child presents with a language learning disorder.
	
	
	Goodz, Naomi S. (1994). Interactions between parents and children in
	bilingual families. Educating second language children: the whole child, the
	whole curriculum, the whole community, ed. by F. Genesee, 62-81. Cambridge:
	CUP.
	
	
	Grammont ???
	
	
	Harding-Esch, E. and P. Riley. 2003. The bilingual family: a handbook for
	parents. Cambridge: CUP.
	
	
	Lüdi, Georges & Bernard Py, ÊTRE BILINGUE, 2e.  édition revue, Peter Lang,
	Éditions scientifiques européennes, Bern 2002
	
	Not really about parents strategies, but a VERY good book about Bilingualism
	(in French).
	
	
	Myles, Carey (2003).  Raising Bilingual Children:  A Parent's Guide.   Los
	Angeles:  Parent's Guide Press. (www.pgpress.com)
	
	An additional parents' guide which is good, especially strong on considering
	the viewpoints of the children, as heritage learners.   It helps especially
	in setting goals that are satisfying rather than frustrating.   Author's
	Iranian emigree background is illuminating, and just a little different.
	Good on issues of learning to read different scripts.
	
	
	Noguchi, M. (1996): “The bilingual parent as model for the bilingual child”.
	Policy Science (this is a Japanese journal). Mar 1996. 245-61.
	
	Studies Japanese-English families living in Japan (mostly the families of
	linguists and language teachers).  Noguchi suggests that the rigid
	consistency that caregivers are striving for in the one person-one language
	strategy may lead to "emotional strain or communication problems in the
	family".  From her survey of Japanese-English bilingual caregivers, 79% (or
	42 out of 53) of caregivers using the one person-one language policy listed
	problems with its use.  These include the perception that the policy is
	"impolite or alienating" when used in the presence of non-speakers of the
	language, difficulties with adherence when living with extended families who
	are Japanese monolinguals, and increasing difficulties with insistence on
	the use of English to communicate with the English-speaking caregiver after
	these children attend Japanese-medium schools. In order to overcome some of
	these problems, she advocates that the bilingual caregivers’ roles would be
	better served if they can see themselves as "models of bilingualism and
	biculturalism" rather than "models of single languages".  This can be
	achieved by a more flexible use of language where languages are alternated
	according to needs and circumstances.  E.g., parents can teach children new
	vocabulary in two languages at the same time to support the child's
	bilingual development. 
	
	
	Romaine, Suzanne (1995). Bilingualism.  Oxford, UK ; Cambridge, Mass., USA :
	Blackwell.
	
	This was the book most people referred me to in their responses.  One person
	describes this as "Gives a general overview of language strategies used to
	raise bilingual children.  She grouped the various strategies used under six
	broad types, of which the one person-one language policy is the first."
	
	
	Ronjat, Jules (1913). Le développement du langage observé chez un enfant
	bilingue.  Paris : H. Champion.  (not sure if this is the reference
	mentioned above???)
	
	
	See, Hazel (g0300901 at nus.edu.sg):  I recently presented a paper at the Sixth
	General Linguistics Conference held in Santiago de Compostela titled "The
	mixed languages policy as a viable alternative to the one person-one
	language policy: a case study". If you're interested, I can send you a copy
	of my paper.
	
	
	Zentella, Ana Celia (1997).  Growing Up Bilingual: Puerto Rican Children In
	New York. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
	
	
	
	
	

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