All about T&P
This post serves as the show notes for the Bilingual Parenting Podcast; this episode is is the third in a series of Bilingual Parenting Strategy episodes. Here we talking all about Time and Place. Wondering if T&P is the right strategy to implement for your family’s language plan? Tune in to this episode where we break it down like this: describe the strategy, talk about the benefits of it, mention some potential obstacles it might bring with suggestions on how to combat them, and finally talk about slightly modified versions of the strategy.
If you haven’t done so already, go ahead and check out the previous episodes in this series, One Parent One Language and Minority Language at Home. These two episodes describe Family Language Policy in more depth and are good precursors to this Time and Place episode.
Highlights from this episode…
First we define the Time and Place strategy:
Well, the name really says it all. Your family chooses a specific time and/or place that you, as a family, will use the target language.
It could look like just a time (i.e. we’re going to speak our heritage language Italian at family dinner time every weeknight, just a place (i.e. every time we go to Halmoni and Haraboji’s house we’re going to do our best to only use Korean) OR a combination of time and place (i.e. every last Friday of the month we’re going to do game night, and speak in Wolof to keep our family language alive).
Then we talk about who might benefit from using this strategy as opposed to OPOL or MLAH:
(1) Families with older kids who want to start using the minority language more often
(2) Families all learning the language together
(3) Trilingual families who have a hard time fitting in all three languages to their daily life
(4) Families who have a specific motive for using the language at a specific time or place (like familial, religious, or ceremonial purposes)
From there, we discuss two potential obstacles that could arise with this strategy:
(1) Little or sporadic input
(2) Could receive pushback or the plan could fizzle out
In the episode, we also talk about ways to combat these obstacles.
Putting Your T&P Plan Together
As our last point, we laid out a step by step guide on how to go about putting your T&P plan together to start implementing use of the minority language with your family. Below we will list out the steps (but tune into the episode for a full description of each one).
Step 1. Sit down and talk about your idea with the family. Present to them why you want to use the language and why’s it will be good to put a plan in place. Hear what they have to say and bring everyone’s input to the table.
Step 2. Determine what is going to work best for your schedule. Time? Place? Time AND Place? Choose what will work for your family. Something doable, sustainable, and enjoyable.
Step 3. Determine a duration for this plan. This will help keep you working toward a goal, and then give you the chance to evaluate after a little while, see what’s working or what it isn’t.
Step 4. Put it into action and see how it goes! Track your progress as a family to see how much you guys grow.
Bonus step! As you’re going through with your plan, encourage extra language use and seek out extra language input. Go above and beyond that time and place so that when you DO come together to practice, you’ll have new tools in your tool box (or your kids will).
Takeaways
Family language policy is not a black and white, cut and dry, one-size-fits-all kind of thing. Your family has to determine what bilingual parenting strategy works for you guys, because every family language context is different. Some action steps from this episode:
Think about your family’s language context. Does time & place work for you? Or could it? Determine why or why not.
If you do use this strategy or plan to, outline your plan for making it work and discuss it with your family. Everyone’s input counts!
Finally, connect with us online. We want to hear from you! Share about how you’re using this strategy or one of the others in your daily life with your bilingüitos!
That’s it for today! If these highlights & takeaways are of interest to you, we hope that you will tune in and listen to the full episode! Then join our Bilingual Parenting Network and let us know what you think!
These are the show notes for Episode #005 of the Bilingual Parenting Podcast, “Time and Place.” Subscribe to our podcast here or check out our homepage for the Podcast. Also connect with us on Instagram!
This episode was sponsored by Hola Amigo Box, a curated kids’ subscription box for Spanish learning at home. Use our code BILINGUITOS10 for 10% at check out!