What are BICS and CALP
Lorenz Lara is the Secondary Literacy Coordinator for the Denver (Colorado) Public Schools, a system with 16 high schools and 16 middle schools. Previously, she was a bilingual teacher and district-level secondary literacy coach. She is currently an adjunct professor, trainer for curriculum materials, and presenter at national conferences and professional development sessions. Lorenza specializes in secondary English learner (EL) education.
DWM: What English learner research has you found to be most informative in your role as a secondary literacy coordinator?
LL: The research of Jim Cummins has informed my work tremendously. Cummins has helped me and countless others understand the differences between basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) and cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP). His research suggests that students who are learning English might take up to two years to learn social language, known as BICS, and they might take up to seven years to learn academic language, or CALP. This is extremely important to understand because educators often confuse learners’ regular development in a second language with literacy difficulties. Many educators mistakenly assume that all ELs are struggling readers. Thomas Sabo Charms
Cummins also has demonstrated the individuality of second-language learners. He has shown how these learners differ according to their cultural backgrounds, schooling experiences, and first-language proficiencies. Educators do well to recognize that these youth have diverse funds of knowledge and skills acquired through their first languages and benefit from instruction that acknowledges these funds. Focusing on youths’ particular strengths, which might be concealed by the difficulties they have expressing themselves in English, supports their second-language acquisition.
Finally, Cummins’s research and writing have contributed much to my understanding of the relationship between language development and cultural background. He has shown that effective educators celebrate their students’ cultural heritages. Part of such celebrations involves permitting students with different cultural backgrounds to connect what they know and can do outside of school with the curriculum inside school. It involves respecting students’ first languages. And it involves using relevant cultural literature to scaffold learners’ understandings. Cummins has clarified how effective teachers begin with what is close to students’ experiences and languages to support their learning of new, unfamiliar concepts and linguistic structures. Thomas Sabo Earrings
Kathy Escamilla is another researcher who has informed my work. Her studies with young children have helped me understand the ways youth can transfer knowledge and skills from their first languages to English and what teachers can do to maximize this transfer. For instance, the 80—20 model, which refers to linguistic interdependence (80%) and linguistic independence (20%), gives teachers an idea of what ELs can transfer from their first languages to English. For example, students who know how to decode automatically and apply comprehension strategies can be taught to transfer these proficiencies somewhat readily to reading a new language. Decoding automatically and comprehending strategically are part of the 80% of languages that are interdependent and somewhat transferable.
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