Summary: Language strategies for bilingual families

[Nitya Sethuraman]

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.