4 multilingual parenting strategies to try with your child

004 - In this episode, Kaisa and Camillo explore different language strategies that families can use to teach their children multiple languages.

They begin by discussing the benefits of raising multilingual children and then dive into four different language strategies: One Parent One Language (OPOL), Minority Language at Home (ML@H), Time and Place, and Mixed Language Approach. For each strategy, they examine its advantages and disadvantages, provide real-life examples of families who have used them successfully, and offer insights into how to implement them effectively.

They conclude by emphasizing the importance of exposing children to multiple languages and cultures and encouraging families to experiment and find the method that works best for them.

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Transcript

003 - 4 multilingual parenting strategies

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Language Experiment Podcast. Hello everyone. So in this episode we are going to talk about four multilingual parenting strategies, and what do we mean by multilingual parenting strategies? Well, there just happens to be. Different kind of approaches that you can use, for teaching and exposing your kids to different languages. You can obviously use your own modified approach or if you are not familiar with some of these strategies that we're going to talk about. Then you can learn from, I'd say these are probably the four most popular strategies that are out there.

They're all strategies that have been researched quite a bit and there are lots of families using [00:01:00] them all around the world. So you can find a lot of information about them online and also in literature.

here are the four most popular, multilingual parenting strategies. Strategy number one, one parent, one language. It's also called opal. In this strategy, Each parent consistently speaks. A certain language, usually their own native language or a language that they are fluent in to their child so that the child is exposed to, at least two different languages from an early age.

For example, one parent might speak English with the child while the other parent might speak Spanish. The idea behind Opal is to create a language rich environment that allows the child to become proficient in multiple languages by receiving consistent exposure to each language. This strategy [00:02:00] is based on the idea that children can differentiate between different languages, and that exposure to each language in a consistent and structured way can help them become bilingual or multilingual.

There has been quite a bit of research done about the use of Opal, and while there is no strategy that will guarantee that a child will come bilingual or multilingual, many parents have seen a lot of success with Opal. The research also shows that the stricter the strategy is followed, the better the results.

 What we're gonna do with all these four different strategies, we're gonna discuss the advantages and the disadvantages that these strategies might have. 

Like everything in life, you do have advantage and disadvantage when using, each of those strategies. So let's talk a little bit about the advantage using opa. basically the strategy ensures that each [00:03:00] parent.

Speaks a different language to the child. That will end up creating clear language boundaries that the child can learn to distinguish from an early age, and they'll be more comfortable with those, channels that they, build with each of their, parents. It also provides, consistent exposure to each of this language.

Which you might already know. It's really important for language development. This exposure helps the child learn the language in a structured and consistent way, so you have a little bit more of a closed box where everything's being, taught and learned, and. For many parents speaking, their native language is the easiest and most natural option, which doesn't require any extra thinking, planning.

[00:04:00] It's, it's built in, right? It's already in you. And I believe in each of, of your cases. you are the best teacher to teach your native language when you are living abroad, for example.

and like you mentioned, there are also some disadvantages to, to this approach. Some of the possible disadvantages. In a family, when one parent speaks the majority language, if the, if the child spends most of their time outside the home, they might not receive enough exposure to the minority language spoken by the other parent, which could hinder their language development.

Or if both parents speak their own minority language but don't spend the same amount of one-on-one time with the child, they might not get the same amount of exposure in each language. With Opal, it can also be [00:05:00] challenging to stick to only one language with your child, especially if it's not the community language.

Many people might not feel comfortable speaking a different language to their children in social situations where others can't understand what's being said, and there might even be outside pressure from family or friends who feel like speaking a different language in a social setting is rude. 

 I think to me, this, this is a big no no when it comes to this, uh, learning curve that the children is being exposed. Is the outside pressure that you might be facing with friends, family, or just in general with the community? I don't know if agree with me, but I believe. In these circumstances, you should not be affected by what other people think or feel when it comes to you and your kids' relationship.

Mm-hmm. If they don't understand what's going on, it's [00:06:00] fine. you are the adult, and when I say you is both right. The person that is feeling affected by something and you the parent, you should know. How to handle the situation and the kid should not be penalized just because they are speaking a different language.

Mm-hmm. That, that might even sort of, I don't know,intimidate the kid to feel more comfortable in public with their own language. So don't be affected by it. This is basically my personal opinion. I'm not sure if agree me, Kaiser. 

Yeah, I think, I think it's, it can be really tricky for people, dealing with these outside pressures or other people not feeling comfortable.

There might even be these countries and communities where it is frowned upon if you're speaking your lang language that people generally don't know or a certain language with your children. at least for me, I was never, luckily, didn't get that kind of [00:07:00] pressure from anyone that I know.

And if someone was not happy about me talking to my daughter in Finnish, I definitely didn't notice it and was completely unaffected by it, because in the end, it's nobody else's business. So. If, if you're getting that kind of pressure from someone, just, try to not give up and try to get comfortable with the idea that it is your family, it is your child, it's only really you who has a say in anything that has to do with you.

follow your gut. 

 That's exactly it. follow what you. You think it's right and everybody will be fine. And I think here at home we have largely being using OPAL, that's our strategy. And so far it has worked well for us, actually.

in the beginning our plan was to do strictly oall. And [00:08:00] then when our daughter was a bit older, we could start speak English as a family. And this is because we didn't want her to feel, like an outsider when we were speak English. because Kai and myself, we speak English, English between ourselves at home, and we thought that because of daycare here in Quebec, her daycare is in French.

her French would be much stronger than English. But to our surprise, we didn't need to do that for two reasons. First, she had a, at some point she had an English substitute teacher at the daycare. And for a while she was there and which gave her a big boost in her English exposure. And after that experience, she and her friends.

Started speaking English between themselves at daycare instead of French. it's a second [00:09:00]point. after so many years of exposure to Finnish and Portuguese here at home, we could already understand pretty much everything that was said, which meant that we were able to communicate as a family by only use or two home languages.

Without having to switch from our own language while our daughter will switch between them, which is really interesting. here, I am an adult and I speak Portuguese as my nav native language. I speak French, I speak English. I have never been exposed to Finnish and being this, being here, in, with this family.

Listening to Kaiser, speaking finish to, to her daughter every day ended up, opening this Finn window to my life. And although I cannot [00:10:00] communicate, I understand a lot. and we end up in discussions here where we need to do things around the house and I'm fully. Onboarded. It's, it's really interesting and I think for you guys the same thing in 

Portuguese, right?

Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely. I think, almost five years of hearing a language every day. It, you learn a lot, like you learn to understand and you might even learn how, learn to speak. So it's, definitely the same experience with me in Portuguese. Onto the next strategy, which is minority language at home.

So the minority language at home strategy is an approach where both parents speak a minority language at home with the child. While the child is exposed to the majority language outside of the home, this strategy is often used by expats and immigrants when the parents are from the same country who live [00:11:00] in another country where their language is not widely spoken.

But it can also be used in families where one parent speaks minority language and the other parent speaks the majority language, provided that they are both fluent in the minority language. 

And a few advantage of these approach is that the child or children, they are consistently exposed to the minority language at home.

Which can help them become fluent in that specific language. it, it has been also studied that, minority language at home is a very successful approach and easy to apply because it doesn't require too much thinking or planning. everybody knows, let's say how to behave around this strategy and this approach also enables.

The family to communicate and have conversations together as a family using one language, which is harder to [00:12:00] do with all other strategies like OPAL, which we just discussed here. 

Exactly. Yeah. and I guess some of the disadvantages of minority language at home is that, well, parents must be able to speak the home language proficiently.

another one would be that, in some cases there might be, children might get limited exposure to the majority language, but I think this is not really a problem unless the family or the child lives in a bubble and doesn't interact much with the community or people who speak the majority language.

there is nothing to suggest that kids who don't speak the majority language at home would do worse in daycare or school because of that. But in the end, every child is different and integrates differently. And lastly, The child might at some point rebel against the home language in favor of [00:13:00] the majority language.

And this is common, when kids start school. So obviously this is something that could happen. And maybe will happen, regardless of what strategy you're using. But I guess the juxtaposition between home and the home language and then the community and the community language is, is kind of, is the perfect setting for a teenager who wants to rebel against their parents and everything that has to do with the home.

So, maybe it is something that, That will, will be more prominent with, with this approach. Not sure. 

I think a good example that we have here, within our circle of friends is some friends that we have from Colombia, and they use this approach, they speak Spanish at home, and when they're outside of the home, they tend to speak either, French or English. And we, whenever we hang out with them, we see [00:14:00] that, it, it works fine for them. And we, even, even in our little conversations, we don't feel any difficulty 

Engaging in a conversation with everyone of the kids parents and everybody. Everybody's is having fun and everybody's comfortable with it. Mm-hmm. 

Yeah, I think it's a good approach. next up we have time and place. So time and place language strategy is an approach where a language or multiple languages are spoken in a certain setting, or for a fixed amount of time.

 What sets this one apart from the two previous approaches is that the parents will speak different languages depending on the time and place. And that multiple languages can be spoken at home depending on what the family has decided. An example of this would be that after 4:00 PM every day, [00:15:00] everyone speaks French.

Or that during mealtime the family only speaks Chinese. This strategy, While it's, it might not be the most common in a family setting. it is actually a very common strategy in the educational setting. an elementary school teacher might teach their class of kids multiple subjects, but during German class, she only speaks in German or in a certain classroom.

Only English is spoken because that's where the English class is held. Time and place is. Very common in education. 

And here are some advantages that you might find when working time and place. first it's a flexible approach, right? And it can be customized . It's a great way of bringing in new language to, otherwise, unilingual home. And it's [00:16:00] also a great way to speak multiple language together as a family.

 as an example, now I can think of a family who, would live in, let's say their own home country. Kids speak the community language at home and in the community, but then this kind of family would want to introduce a new language that they know into the home.

but not to an extent that one of the parents would start speaking that language full-time, for example. Familyliving in Japan. They all just speak Japanese, but the parents would like the kids or the kid to learn English. Maybe they'll decide that during dinner time they're gonna start speaking English as a family or just, yeah, just like certain time and certain place.

in their week or in their schedule, they're gonna introduce this new language there. I could, I could see it happening, happening that way. you talked about the [00:17:00] advantages. There are also some disadvantages. it requires a bit of effort to manage and balance out,

Especially when there are multiple languages. So you need to balance out the exposure. and also I think transitions from one language to another. Can be hard in some situation for the children. yeah. And there might be some, some resistance. 

I think a good example from, from our personal life, on time and place is our daughter's daycare, because as you might know, we are living in.

The Montreal area in Canada and Quebec is a bilingual province with French being official language of the province. And due to that, our daughter's daycare, it's mainly French, but they do have the time and place strategy there. They do [00:18:00] French from Monday to Thursday, and then on Fridays, You do have the English Day where all the classes would be, having English after as their, their spoken language.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So it's really interesting. Yeah, so essentially teachers speak French from Monday to Thursday, and then on Friday all the teachers speak English. And I think kids, they don't really limit what the, what the kids speak, but they probably speak a mix during the week. it's the.

Language of the educators that changes Exactly. For Fridays. Exactly. Yeah. So that, that is a good example. okay, onto our last fourth approach, which is the mixed language approach. the mixed language approach, it involves parents using both the majority and the minority languages with their children.

And what's special about this approach is that there are no rules for using the languages. It just happens [00:19:00] organically and the languages are really used interchangeably. an example of this could be a bilingual country or an area, or an expat or immigrant community in some country where everyone communicates both in the majority and the minority languages.

 we do live in such scenario mm-hmm. Here in Quebec. we can, we can end up facing really interesting situations lang language wise, leaving in this kind of environment and advantage, advantage for the mixed language approach. it allows people to communicate naturally as there are any, rules when it comes to using the languages that basically doesn't put pressure on people to a certain language, but allows more freedom to interchangeably use them [00:20:00] whenever they feel like comfortable using those languages.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And for the disadvantages. As there are no rules, it might be easy, especially for kids to, to use one language more than the other. So maybe like the language just a little bit easier, maybe the kids would be prone to using that language more than the other. And I guess this gets even harder if there are more than two languages in the mix.

and also communicating with someone who is bilingual in these two languages or multiple languages will be different than communicating with someone who only knows one of the languages. that's definitely something that we can hear and witness, witness a lot.

And I guess maybe in our, even in our own speech, we, we do this sometimes when we're talking to, to other people, who also live here. So you, [00:21:00] you can switch from French to English or English to French within one sentence. And, and for certain words, even though you're speaking in English, you actually just use the French word.

and, and for us here in this community, it totally works because almost everybody is at least functionally bilingual, if not fully bilingual, and people have the same context. So, so it doesn't matter that we're mixing two languages, whereas if we were talking. To someone from elsewhere in Canada, like only English speaking Canada.

It could be really confusing because they would just have these huge question marks, on the spots where we use some French word or some French expression. Or if we were talking to a French person who's not very familiar with English, then that could be, that could be a similar, similar situation. [00:22:00] And, And I actually, I grew up in a bilingual community in Finland where Swedish and Finnish were, were spoken.

And I'm also used to hearing people mix both together. so, so this kind of code switching, multiple times in one sentence, it's, to me it's, Yeah, I pretty much grew up with it and, and now I'm living in a completely different community that also heavily uses it. Yeah, 

I, I really cannot remember when was the last time that I went out, for example, for, to, to a restaurant, to apartment store, and whenever I need to engage in conversations.

It was a hundred percent in one language. Mm-hmm. Only, mm-hmm. Yeah, of course. But I, when I say that, I'm talking about a conversation, not just a simple, Question and answer situation. That, that, of course it's [00:23:00] really easy to find, but if you need to sit and explain something, you are returning an object.

That's easy. A situation where you're going to start in French, insert some English words. At some point the other person will switch to English. Are you continuing French? And, and the thing just invert. Yeah. And in the end it becomes fencing match. Exactly. And then in the end, you have your item returned.

That's 

it. Yeah. It's, it all works. Everybody's understood. Yeah. I think that's a very, very com that's a very Montreal story. and it's, it's pretty awesome, I think for, for people to be communicating and functioning that way. I mean, their brains have to be somehow wired differently. Compared to other people's brains, it's it's incredible.

And I guess the same can be said for, for anyone who speaks multiple languages. these were the four multilingual parenting strategies. Maybe you heard something that you didn't [00:24:00] know about before, or maybe you are one of these people who interchangeably speaks two languages and can switch mul multiple times within one sentence.

We'd like to hear from you. We'd like to hear about your experience, and we'd like to know what kind of strategies do you use in your family. Please drop us a line. We'd love to read your messages. 

Yeah. And we see you in the next episode. 

Yes. Good luck guys. Don't give up. Keep raising your children multilingual.

 Make them. Comfortable listening and speaking to different languages, getting access to new cultures, getting access to different people. These will make them amazing human beings. There's no harm whatsoever if we just get together and start building a new world.

Beautiful. 

I know, right? That's a great way to [00:25:00] end it. Thank you very much. Thanks. See you in the next episode. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.