Two Types of Proficiency
You may have heard teachers say, “Why does he need ESL? He speaks English very well. He talks all the time.”
When asked how the student is functioning academically, the response is, “He’s below grade-level, and not doing well,
but the problem must be something other than language.” This child has acquired the social language
(Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills-BICS), but not yet achieved the academic language
(Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency-CALP), or full proficiency in English.
He needs more time for focused academic language development.
BICS vs. CALP
BICS are Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills.
These are the language skills needed for everyday
personal and social communication. Second
language learners must have BICS in order to
interact on the playground and in the classroom. It
usually takes students from 1-3 years to completely
develop this social language. BICS are not
necessarily related to academic success.
Time to master: 1 to 3 years
Characteristics:
Basic “survival” English
Context embedded-applies to real life situations; can
be pointed to or acted out
Carry on intelligible conversations about cognitively
undemanding topics (TV, classroom activities,
friends, family)
Interact with English-speaking peers
Use language needed to function in everyday
interpersonal contexts (pronunciation, grammar,
vocabulary)
Can mislead teachers
CALP is Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency
is the language associated with native language
literacy and cognitive development. These are the
language skills needed to undertake academic tasks
in the mainstream classroom. It includes content-
specific vocabulary. It may take students from 5 to 7
years to develop CALP skills. CALP developed in the
first language contribute to the development of
CALP in the second language.
Time to master: 3 to 10 years
Characteristics:
Language needed to succeed in school
May be more abstract and less connected to real life
Language needed to accomplish academic tasks
Context reduced language, abstract
Literacy skills & content area knowledge
Opinions and feelings expressed
Skills needed to manipulate language outside of the
immediate interpersonal context
Content-reduced, cognitively demanding language
used in classroom activities, such as writing,
spelling and test taking