It’s been five months since the official launch of SpanglishBaby. In this time we’ve come to the realization that, although it’s not the one Ana and I use, the majority of you out there are raising your kiddos bilingual by means of the One Parent-One Language (OPOL) method.
We first started noticing the trend from the questions and comments we got from all our readers and then through the answers to a survey we recently conducted. Out of the responses we got to the question: “I use this method to teach my child a second language…” the overwhelming one was OPOL. In other words, according to the results, 44% of those of you who participated in the poll use the OPOL method.
Truth be told, the results come as no surprise. According to Raising a Bilingual Child by Barbara Zurer Pearson, one of our very own experts, “In 1902, in the first printed advice that we are aware of on how to raise a bilingual child, (Maurice) Grammont proposed OPOL. It has continued to be the favored strategy in many parts of the world, especially in Europe and Canada.”
Even though we’ve touched upon this subject before, Ana and I figured it was time to give a more in-depth look at this ever-so-popular method of accomplishing the task of raising bilingual kids. Thus, we’ll be dedicating this whole week to the OPOL method including our regular Ask an Expert series – which is moving to Wednesday this week only – and a Your Story guest post by someone who has been doing the OPOL thing successfully for the last four years.
Today, we’ll start with a look at some of the top concerns of parents using this method. You probably noticed that for the past few weeks, we’ve had an on-going poll regarding this subject. Thanks to all who participated and in case you didn’t get a chance to look at the results yourself, here’s a snapshot:
The results actually confirmed what we’d kind of deduced all along. Most of you using this method worry that your children are not getting enough of the minority language which, for those of us living in the U.S., means anything but English. Obviously, this makes a lot of sense since we are surrounded by English yet many of us don’t have the luxury to live in “bilingual communities” where Spanish – to use the most common minority language as an example – is spoken and heard as much as English, i.e. Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, you get the point…
This issue is perfectly reflected in this comment from Maria that we got in our Forums: “For us the biggest challenge is getting enough minority language input. Although I am home with the kids (Spanish ml) they still hear lots of English, including most conversations between my husband and myself since his Spanish is not fluent and so us speaking English is often most practical. Plus in general despite my constant efforts to search out Spanish in any/every way shape and form, the community still surrounds us with English and I feel like its a constant effort to keep Spanish in the mix.”
We’ve written extensively about how to deal with this concern and you can find that information in this Ask an Expert post, in this one about boosting the minority language and in this post about creative activities to help your children keep up with their Spanish.
What to Expect:
Following is a taste of what we have prepared for our OPOL Week. We hope you find it useful and, as usual, we encourage you to leave comments, questions or to just share your own experiences. Remember this is the best way for all of us to learn!
- TUESDAY – Pediatrician and author of the book, 7 Steps to Raising a Bilingual Child, Dr. Naomi Steiner, will share with us why she believes the OPOL method is the way to go when raising a bilingual child.
- WEDNESDAY – Our weekly Ask an Expert series with an OPOL-specific question answered by Suzanne Barron-Hauwaert, author of Language Strategies for Bilingual Families – The One Parent-One Language Approach and the blog: Notes from the OPOL Family.
- THURSDAY - A guest post from one of our loyal readers – and the founder of my bilingual playgroup. Many of you who are just starting your bilingual journey have asked if the OPOL method actually works. This post will be proof that it does!
- FRIDAY - A list of resources/articles/websites compiled specifically for those of you using or thinking about using the OPOL method.
***And, as if all this weren’t enough, we will be giving away a copy of Dr. Steiner’s 7 Steps to Raising a Bilingual Child, every single day this week, starting today 
Before signing off, I want to say kudos to all of you who are raising your children bilingual using the OPOL method. Ana and I are both in awe of your discipline and commitment and we know your kids will eventually be forever grateful for your efforts. Keep up the awesome work – you inspire us all!
This giveaway is now closed. You can still enter for another chance every day this week. Congratulations to our winner: NATHALIE SIMMONS JORGE!
To win a copy of Dr. Naomi Steiner’s book:
All you have to do is leave us a comment sharing something about the OPOL method, whether it be a question, a concern, a challenge, a tip, pros/cons, an anecdote, anything that will add to the online conversation about this popular method.
We’ll be giving away one copy per day and you can enter once per day. Today’s giveaway will end tonight at midnight EST. Make sure you’re subscribed either by RSS or email so you don’t miss out on this highly informative and useful OPOL week.
{Photo By UNC – CFC – USFK}
When I was married to my first husband, a Latino, we did not even try the OPOL method because (like so many of his peers in Tampa, Florida) he did not speak his heritage language as well as he did his English.
I tried to give our two sons Spanish as much as possible, but I was a school teacher all day while they were in an English speaking preschool so it was difficult. Thank goodness for the fiestas at his family’s homes!
I bet this week of features will shed light on how to accomplish this challenging goal of providing one language via one parent!
¡Buena suerte! Good luck!
.-= Boca Beth´s last blog ..Music Monday with Easy to Use Boca Beth Songs =-.
My husband speaks Spanish to our children as often as possible, but OPOL has not been that path we’ve chosen…primarily since I too am trying to improve my Spanish language skills. Plus, I enjoy learning alongside my children, and they enjoy teaching me.
My husband and I are having a lot of succes with OPOL. I speak to our son in Spanish and my husband speaks to him in German. I was especially nervous about this since I am not a native speaker. I highly recommend the book “The Bilingual Edge” by Kendall King and Allison Mackey. It put a lot of my fears to rest and gave me a lot of ideas to support raising a bilingual (in our case trilingual) child.
When I was pregnant I thought we would use the OPOL when our daughter was born: me speaking in Spanish and my husband speaking in Malayalam (he is from Kerala, South India)… But it didn’t happen, for some reason my husband didn’t “feel like” speaking Malayalam to Isa. So now I speak Spanish to her and he speaks English to her (ok, so I guess we sort of use the OPOL after all!!), BUT the truth is I end up translating between them almost always since Isa (2.5 years old) is with me most of the time, or he talks to her in his really broken Spanish… We live in NY, so I am just confident that she’ll learn English when she goes to pre-K…
My husband and I have attempted the OPOL method as he doesn’t speak Spanish, but is learning via my speaking to my daugther. It has been a great challenge, especially since English is much easier for me to speak. However, through support of this website and other bilingual moms in the community I am amazed that I have been able to continue to speak to my daughter in Spanish. I have trouble doing it all the time, but do it as much as I can. She seems to understand me, and has a few Spanish worlds. Her English speaking friends might learn a little here and there as well. I am excited that she will be able to at least understand her hispanic relatives and will have the advantage should she choose to pursue speaking Spanish in the future.
I am very excited to learn more about this program, I haven’t tried it.
My son is almost 3 and he is just absorbing and taking in so much information, processing and developing. I would very much like to learn more about the OPOL method and use it with my son. Also, it is nice to see that bilingual education is so supported, I hope that more school systems would get on board with this type of education.
It is SO important these days to be bilingual, for both career and social reasons. With the understanding of another language comes the appreciation of another culture. The depth of experience cannot be duplicated. I am very interested in effective early teaching.
I’m very interested in this, as I would love my child to be able to speak Spanish as well as English. I have taken spanish since 3rd grade ( i went to a private school where it was mandatory) and continued until 11th grade. I just dont know if I know enough to do OPOL.
.-= Cassidy´s last blog ..Dablings Tutti Frutti Minky Blanket =-.
Although we didn’t start out strong with the OPOL method, our daughter is getting more and more bilingual every day! At first my husband would speak mostly English and I would pretty much speak only English. He is now making a stronger effort to speak to her in only Spanish and I speak mostly English but try to speak Spanish when I remember (I know it is not text book OPOL). Our daughter is speaking more and more Spanish every day. You can tell she is aware of the language difference and will tell her dad something in Spanish and me the same thing in English. She is better at making sentences in English, but improving in Spanish. She allows her dad to read her books that are in English in Spanish- but insists that I read them in English. Sometimes if I answer her in Spanish, “Si”, she will say “you say YES”. Or if I start reading in Spanish- she will tell me “say …” whatever it is in English. She can also understand Spanish very well- even when she doesn’t know how to answer in Spanish. I am so proud that our daughter is bilingual! Especially since I am not a native speaker but have made an effort to learn the language and now my daughter will be hopefully fluent!
we live in a large hispanic area and I try to teach the children and anywhere we are when the people speak to them in spanish they absorb what they are learning- me its hard to learn but know it is important for the kids
I would love for both of my daughters to be bilingual (English/Spanish). My family is Cuban. I grew up in a household where my parents spoke little English and I was fully bilingual. However, as I grew into adulthood I had no social or professional network with which to use my Spanish. As a result of living in NE Florida with few Spanish speaking opportunities, my Spanish skills have diminished greatly. I want to improve my Spanish greatly and have my daughters speak it as well.
I’m curious as to how others have been successful with not only teaching a second language to their children, but having them maintain that language if they are not living in a community that supports that second language. I am a victim of “losing it because I didn’t use it” and I would like to know how to avoid this for my children.
With a 3 1/2 week old son, we are just starting out with our OPOL plan. My main concern is that I want to be able to sing songs and read stories to my son in both languages; is this ok? I have heard it is better for the second language speaking parent to be very consistent with only using that language. If I tweak the method and read/sing in both languages, how much will this affect my son’s dual-language acquisition?
.-= Peggy´s last blog ..Itsy Bitsy Yoga =-.
We have been using OPOL since the birth of my first son. My husband speaks English (and some Spanish when the situation arises) and I speak “only” Spanish, and I say only, because of course they listen to me speaking English too with my husband, friends, or in the store, etc, etc. My oldest is bilingual in the sense that he understands and speaks and reads English, and he understands, and read Spanish, but he is not talking much, of course he knows words but it seems that he has a little problem talking in full Spanish sentences. So here are my questions and concerns, Will he be able to start speaking Spanish more fluently in the future with just the Spanish he hears from me? or Do I need to be a little bit more “academic” meaning that I need to spend time just working on his Spanish talking skills?
Thanks chicas!
.-= Silvia´s last blog ..Y las ganadoras son…/And the winners are… =-.
This is a great subject for me! GRACIAS!! Actually my day to day life is teaching my son Adrian with this method. I feel that we have made advances on his Spanish since we started this method that was about 6 months ago (he’s 2 1/2 now) and he does speak a lot of Spanish but now he’s starting to use both languages at the same time, he says a lot of: I want Jugo, Mami, want to jugar con me? I correct him and repeat the phrase in Spanish only sometimes and some other times I ask him ok, but tell me in Spanish please and he does, which is nice, but I want to make sure that this will work and that it’s ok what I’m doing?
Also, when it’s time for preschool, I’m not sure I will be able to find a 2 language one. If I don’t, how can I help him with his full English day of teachings and then coming back to speaking only Spanish to mami?
.-= Dariela´s last blog ..Yo =-.
Since my first son was born we have been using the OPOL method. And though he understand everything I say to him, he tends to speak more English than anything else. He is now three and his use of language is just exploding, every day he uses more and more complete sentences, but most of them seem to be in English and some mixed. This really worries me. Other than me, he really does not hear anyone else speak Spanish. I have surrounded both him and his little sister (19 months) with books, videos, music (you name it) in Spanish. And they both really enjoy it all, but still don’t use the language as much. I really don’t know if I should worry as much and just let it be or if I should push it even more. I want both of them to love being bilingual and not feel that it is work. Am I making any sense?
.-= Lisa Renata´s last blog ..Feeling Yucky and Spanglish Baby giveaway :: Sintiendonos mal y un giveaway de Spanglishbaby =-.
My son and daughter-in-law want to raise their son to be bilingual, but they both speak English, so the OPOL won’t work for them, will it?