OPOL / MLAH / T&L / Mixed Language Policy

[k8e]

First off - I’m sorry if this question has been asked before! I tried searching but didn’t find an answer.

I’m currently pregnant with my first! I’m American, my husband is Spanish, and we live in Spain. We both speak both English and Spanish. I’m interested in books that go into detail on the best way to raise a bilingual bebé. After a bit of online research, I’ve learned about the options of one parent one language, minority language at home, time and place, and mixed language policy.

Right now I’m learning towards MLAH, just because that way we can all speak English together in the house and we can all speak Spanish together when we’re out. I feel like it’d be more “fluid” than speaking together in different languages! If we’re having a conversation all together, but I speak to our baby in English and my husband speaks in Spanish, what language does the baby respond in? I feel like it would be confusing for all of us!

Could anyone guide me towards some resources (specifically
books - but others are welcome too!) which compare these options? Or let me know of your personal experiences!

 

[netwaxer]

@k8e We do MLaH because both parents have the same native language and we live abroad. I think OPOL is popular among couples where each parent has different native language - I saw some people described this as using "language of the heart" for communicating with your child - the language where you have most means (vocab and structures) to express all emotions, experiences and thoughts. If English would work that way for both of you and you already use English as your "home language" with your partner, then go for it. One drawback of OPOL is that naturally the minority language gets less exposure/time especially once schooling starts, and parents need to prioritize it in things like entertainment (books and tv for kids). Oh and kids will mix languages if they know parents speak both. As they grow (like, teenagers), they will develop their own mix / preferences. From OPOL families though, it seems kids quite young get the concept that mum speaks A and dad speaks B and they pick the right one depending on who they talk to.

 

[aldredian]

@netwaxer

Oh and kids will mix languages if they know parents speak both.

Not necessarily.

My son has never mixed languages with me. Only if he can't remember the word which is rare. He would actually describe what he means rather than replacing it with English. We have been strictly OPOL since birth. He knows I can speak English. Definitely knows daddy doesn't speak Mandarin.

What's interesting is we have a friend who are MLaH. Their daughter started daycare at age 3. SHE has started mixing the languages. Way more than my son. Parents kept directing her back to speaking Mandarin at home.

All very interesting.

 

[barsomo]

@k8e Sounds like MLAH would be a good option for you and keep the exposure balanced. On the other hand, we have been doing OPOL with our kids since the beginning where I speak Finnish and my husband Portuguese, we speak English between us parents and French is the community language. Our dinner table conversations are almost exclusively in Finnish/Portuguese and its not confusing at all since we all understand each other and the kids speak both. If us parents address each other, we switch to English. It’s not the most common setup but it works for us, so don’t let OPOL scare you if you decided to go that route

It’s maybe not exactly what you are looking for but we have a podcast where we share our multilingual parenting experience: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-language-experiment/id1695186161

 

[aldredian]

@k8e MLaH is perfect for you guys given you all share the same language so focusing on the language with the least exposure e.g. English would be best.

OPOL, I personally feel, is only best if parents speak 2 different minority languages or it's basically forced because one parent only speak the community language.

I would love to do MLaH. I was raised with MLaH. I think it's a better strategy if you could do it. I can't because my husband doesn't speak my language so we're forced to do OPOL.

My only suggestion would be you still speak English outside. As a family unit, you guys are an English speaking family. Of course, you switch to Spanish or you're with people speaking Spanish but as a family, I'd say stick to the minority language. If you open up an option of community language, your child could potentially only answer back in Spanish.

I only speak Mandarin to my son so he naturally switches to Mandarin with me. It's not natural for him to speak English to me. Same with me. I find it very unnatural to speak English to my mum. Our entire relationship was built on the minority language so we never switched to speaking the community language and it made maintaining the minority language easier.