I was reminded of how important a good understanding of BICS and CALP are at a recent ESL network meeting, where I watched an excellent presentation of BICS and CALP. It was great to refresh my own knowledge but then I thought about who would really benefit from this information - and that is the classroom teacher.
Many teachers believe, and with good reason, that because a student converses with near native English fluency, that they no longer need ESL assistance. Having a good understanding of BICS and CALP will better assist a teacher in determining whether or not their student still requires ESL support.
BICS - Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills are the early conversational skills students learn when they first start to speak English. All most all of our ESL students at St. Mary's have acquired fluent BICS. It takes between 1-2 years of English language instruction to acquire BICS fluently.
CALP - Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency describes a particular type of language acquisition that is used when reading and writing for academic purposes. It take between 5-9 years for a student to acquire CALP to the level of a native English speaker of the same age. CALP is concerned with the language of 'low frequency' words and technical language. It also relies on the student to have a good understanding of the 'passive voice' in which many text books, articles and exams are written in.
Students whose parents speak English as an additional language do not always get exposed to the 'passive voice' and subject specific voice within the home. Many of the students in Phase 2 and Phase 3 are still in the CALP acquisition phase. They are able to converse with the fluency of a native English speaker, however they often struggle during comprehension activities and writing activities.
Below is a link to a video by Dr Jim Cummings, an expert in the field of teaching English. Please take the time to watch it if you have ESL (or EAL/D) students in your class.
I hope you find the following useful:
BICS vs CALP