Social and Academic English

  • There are two types of language proficiency.  BICS and CALPs 

     BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) are language skills needed for everyday personal and social communication.   People learning a second language will develop BICS first so that they can interact socially and in the classroom.   It can take 6 months to 3 years to completely develop social language.    When you took a foreign language in high school, you probably only learned this type of language skill.   You could easily say "hi, how are you?   What time is it?   What did you do over the weekend?"   

    Often times a teacher will assume that if the ESL student can converse socially that they are fine and don't need ESL support.    But this is so wrong.    The second type of language proficiency takes much longer to develop.

    CALPs (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency) is the language associated with performing academic tasks needed in the classroom.  It includes content-specific vocabulary.   It may take students from 5 to 7 years to develop CALP in their second language.  CALP developed in the first language will contribue to the development of CALP in the second language.   So if your student had limited education in his first language or interrupted schooling, the development of CALP may take longer. 

    ESL classes will work mostly on developing CALP skills.   There will be a lot of focus on academic English vocabulary and writing skills needed to perform homework and to write essays.

    Below is a nice chart showing the challenges that ESL learners face.

             ESL Learners                                      Native English Learners

    5,000-7,000 word vocabulary                40,000 word vocabulary

    Reading Grade Equivalent:  2-7              Reading Grade:  9-12

    Reading Speed:  100 words/min          Reading Speed:  300 words/min

    Difficulty with expository writing             Writing skills assumed    

    Lacking experience with puns, idioms       Enjoys humor based on language

    struggles with imagery, metaphor           can access abstract thoughts