<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META NAME="Generator" CONTENT="MS Exchange Server version 6.0.6487.1">
<TITLE>Summary: Language strategies for bilingual families</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY dir=ltr>
<DIV>Nitya,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>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.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Peter Gordon</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV><FONT size=2>-----Original Message----- <BR><B>From:</B>
info-childes@mail.talkbank.org on behalf of Nitya Sethuraman
<BR><B>Sent:</B> Tue 6/15/2004 5:17 PM <BR><B>To:</B>
info-childes@mail.talkbank.org <BR><B>Cc:</B> 'Nitya Sethuraman'
<BR><B>Subject:</B> Summary: Language strategies for bilingual
families<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<P><FONT size=2>Hello,<BR><BR>I posted a question last week regarding language
strategies used by<BR>bilingual families, and in particular, the one-person,
one-language strategy<BR>(OPOL). <BR><BR>I would like to thank Barbara
Conboy, Jeff Fisher, Gary Morgan, Ana<BR>Schwartz, Johanne Paradis, Barbara
Pearson, Elena Nicoladis, Hazel See,<BR>Kathryn King, Mayr Erbaugh, Marie-Rose
Bomgren, and Fred Genesee for their<BR>informative responses.<BR><BR>Below is
a summary, divided into general comments (anonymous, since it<BR>wasn't always
clear to me who wanted to be cited) and a list of
suggested<BR>references:<BR><BR><BR>General Comments:<BR><BR>"There is no
empirical evidence showing that this [OPOL] is the best way to<BR>raise a
child bilingually. There might be evidence (i.e. case studies)<BR>showing that
it works well, but not to the exclusion of other approaches, at<BR>least none
that I'm aware of. In fact, Naomi Goodz did a study quite some<BR>time ago (in
the early 90's maybe) in which she found that parents who swore<BR>that they
used the one-person, one-language strategy actually didn't."<BR><BR><BR>"There
are lots of studies about this saying that adults give more<BR>complexity and
richness in the input if they use an L1 with their child but<BR>I wanted to
just say that I raised by daughter bilingually by both parents<BR>speaking
their own L1 as it was just a lot easier for us. And one parent
one<BR>language isn't 100% of the time just most of the time I
think"<BR><BR><BR>"I do not know of any evidence suggesting that the one
parent one<BR>language is better. Rather, it is a common practice. Indeed work
by Ana<BR>Celia Zentella (check out her book "Growing up bilingual") provides
case<BR>study evidence of how good children are at code switching and
responding to<BR>appropriate register, in families in which multiple languages
are spoken by<BR>both parents."<BR><BR><BR>"I know that in Miami, where I did
a lot of research, one-parent<BR>one-language is NOT the norm (but the Latin
community there is also not<BR>particularly successful at helping the next
generation be truly bilingual)."<BR><BR><BR>"Ronjat followed that rule (citing
a guy named Grammont-- I think that's the<BR>spelling) on the grounds that one
person-one language would be less<BR>confusing for children. He then goes
through his book soundly congratulating<BR>himself on his success in not
confusing his child. The research since then<BR>I think has been fairly
convincing in showing that it is actually quite hard<BR>to confuse children
with two languages in the input so I doubt there is<BR>anything to the rule of
Grammont. But I don't know of anyone who has<BR>addressed that
empirically.<BR>The use of one parent-one language in research comes up when
research<BR>questions are about bilingual children's language choice. It's
easier to go<BR>to one place (i.e., the home) and find the two languages used
than it is to<BR>visit the school once and the home another time. I've had to
do the latter<BR>on one occasion when the child heard one language at home and
one language<BR>at daycare. It was a
pain."<BR><BR><BR>References:<BR><BR>Baker, Colin (1995/2000). "A
Parents' & Teachers guide to bilingualism".<BR>Clevedon:
Multilingual Matters. <BR><BR>Includes a discussion of other strategies
besides OPOL.<BR><BR><BR>Barron-Hauwaert, Suzanne (2004). Language
Strategies for Bilingual<BR>Families: The one-parent - one-language
Approach. Multilingual Matters.<BR><BR>2 chapters on other strategies
for language use within the family and<BR>concludes with suggestions of how
the OPOL can be adapted for use in the<BR>21st century.<BR><BR><BR>De Houwer,
A. 1999. Environmental factors in early bilingual development:<BR>the role of
parental beliefs and attitudes. Bilingualism and migration, ed.<BR>by G.
Extra and L.Verhoeven, 75-95. New York: Mouton de
Gruyter.<BR><BR><BR>Deuchar, Margaret and Suzanne Quay (2000). Bilingual
Acquisition:<BR>Theoretical Implications of a Case Study. Oxford; New
York: Oxford<BR>University Press.<BR><BR><BR>Döpke, Susanne
(1998). Can the principle of 'one person-one language' be<BR>disregarded
as unrealistically elitist?. Australian Review of Applied<BR>Linguistics, 21,
1, 41-56. <BR><BR><BR>Döpke, Susanne (1992). One Parent, One
Language: An Interactional Approach.<BR>Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : J.
Benjamins Pub. Co.<BR><BR><BR>Fisher, Jeff (JFisher777@aol.com) is currently
doing a qualitative research<BR>project on a 2 year old that is in a foreign
environment and exposed to<BR>multiple languages. <BR><BR><BR>Genesee,
Fred, Johanne Paradis, and Martha B. Crago (2004). Dual
Language<BR>Development & Disorders: A Handbook on Bilingualism and
Second Language<BR>Learners. Brooks Publishing Company.<BR><BR>In
chapters 1 and 8 in particular we discuss different choices families
make<BR>in how to make their children bilingual, and how to deal with these
choices<BR>if their child presents with a language learning
disorder.<BR><BR><BR>Goodz, Naomi S. (1994). Interactions between parents and
children in<BR>bilingual families. Educating second language children: the
whole child, the<BR>whole curriculum, the whole community, ed. by F. Genesee,
62-81. Cambridge:<BR>CUP.<BR><BR><BR>Grammont ???<BR><BR><BR>Harding-Esch, E.
and P. Riley. 2003. The bilingual family: a handbook for<BR>parents.
Cambridge: CUP.<BR><BR><BR>Lüdi, Georges & Bernard Py, ÊTRE BILINGUE,
2e. édition revue, Peter Lang,<BR>Éditions scientifiques européennes,
Bern 2002<BR><BR>Not really about parents strategies, but a VERY good book
about Bilingualism<BR>(in French).<BR><BR><BR>Myles, Carey (2003).
Raising Bilingual Children: A Parent's Guide.
Los<BR>Angeles: Parent's Guide Press. (www.pgpress.com)<BR><BR>An
additional parents' guide which is good, especially strong on
considering<BR>the viewpoints of the children, as heritage
learners. It helps especially<BR>in setting goals that are
satisfying rather than frustrating. Author's<BR>Iranian emigree
background is illuminating, and just a little different.<BR>Good on issues of
learning to read different scripts.<BR><BR><BR>Noguchi, M. (1996): “The
bilingual parent as model for the bilingual child”.<BR>Policy Science (this is
a Japanese journal). Mar 1996. 245-61.<BR><BR>Studies Japanese-English
families living in Japan (mostly the families of<BR>linguists and language
teachers). Noguchi suggests that the rigid<BR>consistency that
caregivers are striving for in the one person-one language<BR>strategy may
lead to "emotional strain or communication problems in the<BR>family".
From her survey of Japanese-English bilingual caregivers, 79% (or<BR>42 out of
53) of caregivers using the one person-one language policy listed<BR>problems
with its use. These include the perception that the policy
is<BR>"impolite or alienating" when used in the presence of non-speakers of
the<BR>language, difficulties with adherence when living with extended
families who<BR>are Japanese monolinguals, and increasing difficulties with
insistence on<BR>the use of English to communicate with the English-speaking
caregiver after<BR>these children attend Japanese-medium schools. In order to
overcome some of<BR>these problems, she advocates that the bilingual
caregivers’ roles would be<BR>better served if they can see themselves as
"models of bilingualism and<BR>biculturalism" rather than "models of single
languages". This can be<BR>achieved by a more flexible use of language
where languages are alternated<BR>according to needs and circumstances.
E.g., parents can teach children new<BR>vocabulary in two languages at the
same time to support the child's<BR>bilingual
development. <BR><BR><BR>Romaine, Suzanne (1995). Bilingualism.
Oxford, UK ; Cambridge, Mass., USA :<BR>Blackwell.<BR><BR>This was the book
most people referred me to in their responses. One person<BR>describes
this as "Gives a general overview of language strategies used to<BR>raise
bilingual children. She grouped the various strategies used under
six<BR>broad types, of which the one person-one language policy is the
first."<BR><BR><BR>Ronjat, Jules (1913). Le développement du langage observé
chez un enfant<BR>bilingue. Paris : H. Champion. (not sure if this
is the reference<BR>mentioned above???)<BR><BR><BR>See, Hazel
(g0300901@nus.edu.sg): I recently presented a paper at the
Sixth<BR>General Linguistics Conference held in Santiago de Compostela titled
"The<BR>mixed languages policy as a viable alternative to the one
person-one<BR>language policy: a case study". If you're interested, I can send
you a copy<BR>of my paper.<BR><BR><BR>Zentella, Ana Celia (1997).
Growing Up Bilingual: Puerto Rican Children In<BR>New York. Oxford: Blackwell
Publishers.<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR></FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE>
</BODY>
</HTML>