RETOS Y MITOS SOBRE LA CRIANZA BILINGÜE ESPAÑOL-INGLÉS POR NO NATIVOS

English has become a lingua franca in most international settings. Citizens in a globalized world need multilingual profiles in order to enhance their employability (Baker, 2011). Consequently, Spanish English bilingual programmes have proliferated in Spain to meet such requirements (Lozano-Martínez, 2017). In order to foster their children’s learning experience, some Spanish non-native English-speaking parents have decided to speak to their children in English. Thus, family language planning is crucial to children’s linguistic development. When the socialization scope of the baby goes beyond the family, children’s language awareness is progressively weakened (Zhao, 2018). In this way, what are the challenges? Which preconceived ideas prevent some parents from trying or reinforcing their language planning endeavour? What kind of support is needed, or available, in order to complete an input based on the ‘one person-one language’ strategy (OPOL) which, according to De Houwer (2007) is not enough on its own? In this sense, there are only a few references like those of Saunders (1988) and Jernigan (2015) about non-native speakers who raise their children bilingually. We come across even less references about studies contextualized in Spain as that by Sánchez Torres (2010). Further studies are needed. This paper aims to identify the aforementioned challenges and myths, by means of the quantitative analysis of the data obtained from a questionnaire fulfilled by 735 families that allows us to describe the present scenario.El inglés se erige como lingua franca en la mayoría de contextos internacionales. Los ciudadanos de este mundo globalizado necesitan perfiles multilingües que aumenten su empleabilidad (Baker, 2011) por lo que en España los programas de educación bilingüe español-inglés han proliferado para atender a dicha necesidad (Lozano-Martínez, 2017). Con el fin de contribuir, algunos padres y madres españoles hablan en inglés a sus hijos sin ser nativos. Así, la planificación lingüística familiar es crucial para el desarrollo lingüístico, se comienza con los bebés pero al añadir ámbitos de socialización, además del familiar, su consciencia sobre la lengua extranjera se va debilitando (Zhao, 2018). Por tanto ¿cuáles son los retos? ¿qué ideas preconcebidas disuaden a algunos de intentarlo o persistir? ¿Qué apoyos se precisan o están disponibles para complementar un input basado en la estrategia ‘una persona-una lengua’ que según (De Houwer, 2007) no es suficiente? En este sentido, encontramos pocas referencias destacando Saunders (1988) y Jernigan (2015) sobre no nativos que crían en una lengua extranjera a sus hijos para que sean bilingües. Menos aún sobre estudios contextualizados en España como el de Sánchez Torres (2010). Resulta necesario investigar al respecto. Este artículo pretende identificar los referidos retos y mitos, mediante el análisis cuantitativo de los datos obtenidos a partir de un cuestionario a 735 familias que permite describir el escenario que nos situamos.English has become a lingua franca in most international settings. Citizens in a globalized world need multilingual profiles in order to enhance their employability (Baker, 2011). Consequently, Spanish English bilingual programmes have proliferated in Spain to meet such requirements (Lozano-Martínez, 2017). In order to foster their children’s learning experience, some Spanish non-native English-speaking parents have decided to speak to their children in English. Thus, family language planning is crucial to children’s linguistic development. When the socialization scope of the baby goes beyond the family, children’s language awareness is progressively weakened (Zhao, 2018). In this way, what are the challenges? Which preconceived ideas prevent some parents from trying or reinforcing their language planning endeavour? What kind of support is needed, or available, in order to complete an input based on the ‘one person-one language’ strategy (OPOL) which, according to De Houwer (2007) is not enough on its own? In this sense, there are only a few references like those of Saunders (1988) and Jernigan (2015) about non-native speakers who raise their children bilingually. We come across even less references about studies contextualized in Spain as that by Sánchez Torres (2010). Further studies are needed. This paper aims to identify the aforementioned challenges and myths, by means of the quantitative analysis of the data obtained from a questionnaire fulfilled by 735 families that allows us to describe the present scenario