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Language & Culture Tip #93

BICS & CALP
and what these terms mean for you as an adult language learner or teacher


by Lauren Vitrano-Wilson
Imagine… you’re hanging out with your local friends and feel you are totally tracking. You join in on the conversation and can reply with zero non-sequiturs. You enjoy these informal gatherings a lot and are encouraged by them.
 
Meanwhile, when you are worshiping at your local congregation and listening to the sermon, your understanding plummets. Some weeks you understand maybe half of what the preacher is saying if it is simply a story from daily life being used to illustrate, while other weeks you’re only eking out around 25% comprehension and totally missing the point.

Your thoughts might go something like this: “Something about a boat… mountain…. night… something about a boat again … kilometers… pray! I heard the word pray! Wind… afraid…… Come!! Oh wait! This must be the story of Jesus walking on water!  But…I never heard the word for “walk” so… I guess it can’t be that story…. hummm… what story IS this?! Agh! The reading is over! I’ll just sit here and read to myself. (See footnote 1).

 
Yep. That’s it. You find you’re discouraged, wondering why you bother coming on Sundays and you find you look at the birds out window more than you listen to the message.
 
Sound familiar? If not, then I’ll ask you to be a guest tip writer because this is all too familiar to me.
 
What in the world is going on? How is it that in the informal setting you understand so much and in a formal setting you’re basically lost?
 
I’ll tell you. It’s a BICS / CALP thing. (See footnote 2). 


You see, depending on the sermon topic, how colloquial the topic is vs. how academic it is, your ability to understand will vary greatly. This chart will help explain:
Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills
BICS
Cognitive Academic
Language Proficiency
CALP
Generally corresponds to
ACTFL: Beginner to Advanced-Mid
FSI: 0 through 2
Generally corresponds to
ACTFL: Advanced High or higher
FSI: 2+ or higher
Typical timeline of Development  for K-12 students in a school where the language being learned is the main language of instruction:
 
1–3 years to develop with sufficient exposure to the second language
5 to 7 years if the learner has native language literacy.

7–10 years for learners who do not have strong native language literacy and/or lack parental support.

Development also depends on:
     *L1 maintenance
     *if the L1 & L2 use the same script
The language needed to function in everyday, social situations. The language needed to understand and discuss content in academic subjects and settings (classroom, textbooks, and assessments). Used as a tool for learning as one begins to think in that target language.
Example:
“Hi! I’m Lauren. What’s your name? Nice to meet you.”
Example:
“An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written symbols or graphemes that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages.”
Language of playgrounds, streets, markets, cafés, the dinner table, parties, school buses, telephone calls and text messages Language of the classroom, textbooks, assessments, classroom projects, report writing, critical thinking and problem solving.
It’s possible to sound fluent and still not do well in school. Essential for students to succeed in school.
low literacy demands high literacy demands
predominantly oral both oral and written
listening: to lessons, lectures, sermons, etc.
speaking: giving presentations & speeches
reading: books, academic articles, narratives, textbooks, scientific paper, the Bible, etc.
writing: about subject area content material; essays; reports
non-specialized vocabulary specialized vocabulary
less cultural knowledge is necessary to comprehend greater cultural/linguistic knowledge is needed to comprehend
not cognitively demanding, context-rich, concrete topics cognitively demanding, context-reduced, abstract topics requiring some prior knowledge; the student has to learn new ideas, concepts, and vocabulary simultaneously
can be learned from social interactions must be explicitly taught
face-to-face interactions face-to-face interaction is diminished
achieved by all native speakers only achieved by some native speakers
informal/colloquial formal
involves lower-order thinking skills (remembering, understanding, and applying) involves higher-order thinking skills (e.g. analyzing, synthesizing, evaluating, comparing, classifying, inferring)enables one to manipulate language using abstractions in a sophisticated manner
much can be understood from non-verbal communication little can be understood from non-verbal communication
personal impersonal
tier 1 words tier 2 & 3 words
3,000 words or less 100,000+ words
short and simple language structure long and complex language structure

What does this mean for you as an adult language learner?


Perhaps you sound quite fluent in your daily tasks, but how well can you truly do some more complicated tasks like really understanding people when they open up to you about truly important matters? share the good news about Jesus? help consult on a translation team? help a local friend feel like they can come to you when they are struggling with an addiction?

By being aware of the difference between BICS and CALP, you can ultimately help yourself achieve greater proficiency in another language & culture because you will:
  • Understand that both BICS and CALP are necessary for well-rounded language development that will enable you to go deep with people.
  • Will not think that you’re “all set” simply because you can chat with people at the market if what you really need to do is much more complex and abstract.
  • Understand why you have great friends you chat it up with and yet still struggle to understand sermons and lectures.
  • Be able to advocate for a more authentic assessment of your skills and not be pushed beyond your genuine capabilities prematurely.
  • Be able to set more realistic, long-term expectations and goals knowing that a full, broad CALP vocabulary and skills take many years to develop.
  • Have ideas for what kind of vocabulary to continue to learn beyond the first few years of learning (i.e., take time to determine which new, academic domains are most useful to your service and work).
  • Understand that mastering BICS doesn’t necessarily mean you are ready for tasks requiring much higher academic language learning (CALP) and be able to communicate this to a supervisor who may be asking you to end your official language-learning phase of service too soon.
  • Strategize your learning activities better at each stage of your linguistic development, because different stages require different activities.
  • See that once you have developed BICS and sound quite fluent, people will start to have expectations of you to also know the culture at the same level.
So, take another look at the difference between BICS and CALP. Try to assess where you are between the two and where you ultimately want to “land.” If you are not yet at the level you want/need to be at, then be sure to pick activities specifically targeted at getting you to be able to understand the things you personally need to understand.
 
Email me if you have any questions specific to your situation. I’m always happy to try to help.
 
God bless you all and the people you serve!
Lauren
Footnotes:

1) The Thai language has vocabulary words used for just for kings. Since Jesus is the King of kings, these vocabulary words are used for Him as well. I had just recently arrived in Thailand and did not know this, hence why I never heard the word for "walk" that I knew.

2) The person who came up with the distinction between BICS and CALP is Professor James (Jim) Cummins from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Professor Cummins works on language development and literacy development of learners of English as an additional language. In 1979, Cummins coined the acronyms BICS and CALP to refer to processes that help a teacher to qualify a student's language ability. I had the pleasure of meeting him at a conference in 2002 and he gave me the honor of speaking to the entire conference hall about my teaching experience in an international, immigrant high school in NYC where 95% of my students went on to college after only 4 years or less of being in the USA! All of my students had to submit every assignment bilingually to keep up their CALP in their L1.
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Written by Lauren C. Vitrano-Wilson and made available by a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Serving Learners Worldwide as a Language & Culture Learning Consultant
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Horizons International and the Family Connection Foundation






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Lauren C. Vitrano-Wilson · 201 West 70th St. · NYC, NY 10023 · Thailand

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