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Raising Bilingual Children - Do you Speak OPOL?

Children, of course, are not born into the one-on-one, mother-and-baby limbo, so beloved of childcare books, popular psychology and ad agencies, but into a complex web of relationships within a complex society. When two or more languages are spoken in that society, we may worry about our kids getting mixed up. In fact, conservative estimates suggest that more than half the world’s population is bilingual or multilingual, and children are perfectly able to learn several languages from the cradle. Valerie Collins, Barcelona resident of more than 30 years and mother of 2 multilingual sons, explains how we can help this natural process by being aware of different approaches to bringing up bilingual children followed by parents worldwide....

When discussing bilingual kids, the language of the community in which the family lives is called the majority or M- language. The other language is called the minority or m-language. Here, for clarity and simplicity, M is Spanish and m is English.

The two basic patterns most families follow (unless they have no pattern at all) are:

* OPOL: One person/parent one language. Each parent and any other person involved with the child (grandparents, nannies etc) uses one language when speaking to the children. For example, Mum speaks English to the kids, Dad Spanish.

* ml@h: Minority language at home. Both Mum and Dad speak English with the kids.  

* BPBL: Both parents both languages. For example, the whole family speaks English during the week and Spanish at weekend, Spanish and English alternate weeks, English at home and Spanish on outings... many patterns are possible, the important thing being that it works for you.

Many families find that OPOL and ml@h get mixed up; in particular OPOL is used in one-on-one parent-child situations and ml@h or even Ml@h when all together. This will largely depend on the parents’ ability to understand and speak each other’s languages, and which of them they habitually use with each other. One partner may not speak the m-language well or at all, may be learning it, or simply feel uncomfortable with it, especially if the couple spoke the M-language together when they first met.

Another factor is who cares for the children during the day: the regular presence of M-speaking people like local grandparents, babysitters and so on may lead to the M-language becoming the all-purpose family language (Ml@h).  But all is not lost. Small children will still come to associate a particular language with a particular person, grouping or situation provided you follow your established pattern as best you can. But it’s counterproductive to become too rigid or uptight about it, like the Swedish woman I heard about who got so upset when her child spoke to her in Spanish that she took him out of school altogether. Cultivated with a light touch, bilingualism will bloom in its own time. The most important thing of all is that we communicate. That’s what language is for, isn’t it?

Copyright 2008 Valerie Collins

Valerie Collins is a British writer who has lived in Barcelona since 1973.  She is co-author, with Theresa O'Shea, of "In The Garlic: Your Informative, Fun Guide to Spain", published by Santana Books. ISBN-13: 978-84-89954-59-5  www.inthegarlic.com

A must-read book for all expats in Spain and those relocating!

See Extracts from "In the Garlic" and purchase online here .

Also available from www.amazon.co.uk and in Barcelona at Casa del Llibre, Pg de Gràcia 62, FNAC, Pl, Catalunya (Triangle) and BCN Books, Roger de Llúria 118

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