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<h1>Why it's OK for bilingual children to mix languages</h1>
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June 21, 2018 by Chisato Danjo, <a target="_blank" href="http://theconversation.edu.au/">The Conversation</a>
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</figcaption></figure><p>Few would consider mastering more than one
language a bad idea. In fact, research points to a number of cognitive,
economic and academic advantages in being bilingual.
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</div> <p>Parents who speak different languages understand the family home is an important setting to learn both, and seek <a href="http://bilingualmonkeys.com/my-best-tips-for-raising-bilingual-kids/">various ways</a> to help their <a href="https://medicalxpress.com/tags/children/" rel="tag" class="gmail-textTag">children</a> thrive bilingually. One of the best-known approaches is the "<a href="http://www.raising-bilingual-children.com/basics/info/rules/">one-parent-one-language</a>" strategy (OPOL). Each parent uses one <a href="https://medicalxpress.com/tags/language/" rel="tag" class="gmail-textTag">language</a> when communicating with their child, so their offspring learn both languages simultaneously. </p>
<p>OPOL emphasises <a href="https://bilingualkidspot.com/2016/10/07/opol-method-one-person-one-language/">consistency</a>
– sticking to one language each – as key to its approach. But this
creates the myth that mixing languages should always be avoided. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/figure/10.1080/13670050.2018.1460302?scroll=top&needAccess=true">My recent study</a>, part of a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/applij/issue/39/1">new wave of multilingualism studies</a>, would suggest this received wisdom is just that: a myth.</p>
<p>My research looked at Japanese-British families living in the UK with
pre and early school-age children who were following a more-or-less
strict OPOL language policy. I was particularly interested in examining
the impact of OPOL in the family home – how does this unique language
environment affect the way children use languages? </p>
<p>Most of the Japanese mothers who participated in my research were
fluent in Japanese and English, while the fathers possessed an
elementary grasp of Japanese. This made English the primary language of
communication between the parents and outside the home. For this reason,
the mothers were careful to carve out additional space for more
sustained Japanese language learning with their children. In other
words, this dedicated space for communicating in Japanese (the minority
language) was time children would spend exclusively with their mother.
This seemed to create a connection between "Japanese language" and
"motherhood" in the children's perception.</p>
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<p>This link became apparent in how children used Japanese as a means of
emotional bonding with their mother and adopted a much broader
behavioural "repertoire" than usually associated with language. For
example, switching to Japanese could sometimes serve as a method to
appease mum when she seemed unhappy. At other times, refusing to
communicate in Japanese was a useful means of defiance, even when the
dispute was not related to language. </p>
<p>Language can never be a neutral communication tool. How it is used at
home and beyond – socially, at school, in the workplace – brings
additional connotations and meanings which are used consciously or
unconsciously in communication. </p>
<p><b>Creativity with language</b></p>
<p>The OPOL approach emphasises the need for parents to monitor
children's language closely and correct them if they mix the two
languages. In practice, many parents speaking the minority language are
bilingual themselves – so they understand what their children are saying
even when they do mix the two. Parents may feel it is difficult to keep
correcting children when they mix languages because they just want to
have a meaningful conversation whatever language their child uses. This
is especially the case when children show annoyance at being corrected.</p>
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<p>But what if a child uses language that is difficult to categorise
into either Japanese or English? An example involved the use of English
words absorbed into Japanese pronunciation. One of many borrowed words
adorning the Japanese language, "ice cream" is usually pronounced "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPTvqnl0aIw">aisukurimu</a>", emphasising the general feature of vowel-ending sounds in Japanese.</p>
<p>The distinction between singular and plural does not exist in
Japanese nouns in the English language sense, so whether using singular
or plural, even in a borrowed word, "aisukurimu" is the form normally
used. But one of my child participants showed his mother a drawing of
two cones of ice cream and described them as "aisukurimuzu", with a
Japanese pronunciation but in English plural form. The child had created
something in between, perhaps to avoid being corrected.</p>
<p>Another example is interaction between Japanese-English bilingual
siblings. A six-year old girl was trying to convince her four-year old
brother to let her play with his toys. Following firm rejections by her
brother, the girl drew on her communicative repertoire to convince him.</p>
<p>First she shifted from an authoritative demand to a softer and
humbler request. She rephrased the question by using various polite
forms. Then her voice changed nasally, suggesting that she was about to
burst into tears. Even more interestingly, while the negotiation had
begun in English, in the middle she shifted to Japanese. </p>
<p>Although this may give the impression of language mixing, a
considerably more complex process was taking place. The shift was
accompanied by the incorporation of Japanese cultural elements, such as <a href="http://www.japanesepod101.com/blog/2016/07/11/japanese-honorifics-guide-san-kun-chan-sama-and-more/">honorific titles</a>
that emphasise emotional attachment, a relationship of dependence
between sister and brother, and an assumed obligation to care by the
brother. She succeeded.</p>
<p><b>A more holistic approach</b></p>
<p>These examples show how creatively and strategically human beings use
language in their daily communication. Whether bilingual or not, we all
constantly select from our repertoire anything that will best serve our
purpose. For instance, imagine you want to ask a favour from your
neighbour. You would use polite language in a friendly voice. But what
about your facial expression? Your body language? For bilinguals,
shifting between languages is all part of their repertoire. </p>
<p>Our language repertoires are shaped by meaning, based on the
knowledge garnered throughout our lives. And the ways we use language
also shape its meaning. So ways of using OPOL in the family bring
specific meaning to language used at home, and children make full use of
its emergent meaning in their own interactions.</p>
<p>The popularity of OPOL rests on its commonsense simplicity, which is
mostly that it is consistent. But when we see a child actively using,
adapting and negotiating their repertoire, it casts doubt on the belief
that it's bad for children to mix languages. What it could actually be
doing is demonstrating high-level flexibility and interpersonal skills. </p>
<p>Being bilingual is not simply about being able to speak two
languages. Rigidly policing consistency in the one-parent-one-language
approach could actually restrict bilingual children's linguistic ability
and creativity. And in the same way, it could also limit their parents'
ability to reveal their own bilingual skills, using their own
repertoires.
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<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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