BASIC INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS (BICS) AND

Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) and

Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP)

Non-academic or cognitively undemanding activities

Academic and cognitively demanding activities

Context-Embedded

1. Developing survival vocabulary

2. Following demonstrated Directions

3. Playing simple games

4. Participating in art, music, physical education and some vocational education classes

5. Engaging in face-to-face interactions

6. Practising oral language exercises and communicative language functions

7. Answering lower level questions

III

1. Developing academic vocabulary

2. Understanding academic presentations accompanied by visuals, demonstrations of a process, etc

3. Participating in hands-on science activities

4. Making models, maps, charts and graphs in social studies

5. Solving math computation problems

6. Solving math word problems assisted by manipulatives and/or illustrations

7. Participating in academic discussions

8. Making brief oral presentations

9. Using higher level comprehension skills in listening to oral texts

10. Understanding written texts through discussion, illustrations and visuals

11. Writing simple science and social studies reports with format provided

12. Answering higher level questions

Context-Reduced

1. Engaging in predictable telephone conversations

2. Developing initial reading skills: decoding and literal comprehension

3. Reading and writing for personal purposes: notes, lists, recipes, etc

4. Reading and writing for operational purposes: directions, forms, licenses, etc

5. Writing answers to lower level questions

1. Understanding academic presentations without visuals or demonstrations

2. Making formal oral presentations

3. Using higher level reading comprehension skills: inferential and critical reading

4. Reading for information in content subjects

5. Writing compositions, essays and research reports in content subjects

6. Solving math problems without illustrations

7. Writing answers to higher level questions

8. Taking standardised achievement tests

Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) are those that are cognitively undemanding and include known ideas, vocabulary and syntax. They are the aspects of communication that are used daily in routine communicative exchanges (e.g., while dressing, eating, bathing, playing, etc.). BICS skills represent the informal aspects of social talk as well as skills that do not require a high degree of cognition (e.g., naming objects and actions, referring to non-existence, disappearance, rejection, and negation, and so forth).

Students demonstrating BICS might recognise new combinations of known words or phrases and produce single words or short phrases. When students begin to acquire a second language, they are typically able to develop BICS within 2-3 years. Most importantly, Cummins cautioned that students should not be placed in learning situations in which a second language (L2) is used just because they have adequate L2 BICS since students usually have much more L2 to learn before attempting academically demanding tasks.

Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) takes much longer than BICS to develop, usually about 5-7 years. CALP skills are those that are necessary for obtaining literacy and academic success. CALP enables students to have academic, analytical conversation and to independently acquire factual information. CALP is used to apply information acquired to find relationship, make inferences, and draw conclusions.

Hetty Roessingh’s comparison between ESL learners and Native Speaking Learners in terms of the English language at their disposal, shows the challenge ESL learners face:

ESL Learners	Native English Speaking Learners
5,000 – 7,000 word vocabulary[1]	40,000 word vocabulary[2]
Reading speed: approximately 100 words per minute for narrative materials	Approximately 300 words per minute
Reading Grade equivalent: 6-7	Reading at grade 10 level or higher
Difficulty with writing in expository mode	Writing skills assumed
Familiar with standard English only	Familiar with a variety of dialects (Ebonics, the language of children)
Lacking experience with puns, double meanings, idioms	Enjoy humour based on language
The language of imagery, metaphor, symbolism, tone, bias in English will be a challenge	Can access abstract thought through English language

CONTINUE...