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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