BICS and CALP: Implications for SLA

Abstract

The BICS/CALP dichotomy, proposed by Cummins, has attracted the attention of many educators, syllabus designers, and various educational systems involved in the education of minority migrant children. Though not immune to criticism, this distinction has solved some of the enigmas concerning the education of such children. Nevertheless, its relationship with SLA on the whole is rather under-researched. To meet such an end the researchers of this paper, following Kumaravadivelu’s (2006, p. xiii) suggestion concerning creating a “pattern which connects”, have tried to investigate the status of this dichotomy in the SLA literature.

Exploring the use of assessment for learning in the mathematics classroom

“…Classroom realities such as learners' language proficiency (Cummins, 1979(Cummins, , 1981 and overcrowded classrooms (Khan & Iqbal, 2012) adversely affect classroom practices. Learners' ability to understand and communicate depends on their language development (Khatib & Taie, 2016). To understand what is presented in the assessment, learners should be able to speak and write the subject's registers (Cummins, 2000).…”

CLIL across the Curriculum, benefits that go beyond the classroom

“…In any event, learners are need to be able to master both language and content-based knowledge (such as mathematics); their integration help them become more natural parts of students' real lives as they continue to interacting within their communities or wider society. The effective integration of content and language within the curriculum thus supports a range of both more and less obvious benefits to learning and learners, as they are able to use the content acquired in the target language immediately for real, authentic purposes, and to think in the new vehicular language, naturally combining HOTS and LOTS, BICS and CALP in both academic and non-academic environments (Anderson, 2011;Várkuti, 2010;Khatib & Taie, 2016).…”

“…The beauty of working with a CLIL-oriented curriculum is that language, content, and cognition can all be linked together. But to address the challenges that teachers and administrators may have in transforming the theory into practice, tools such as a CLIL planning matrix (Figure 1), based on Cummins' quadrant model (Cummins, 1989(Cummins, , 2000Halbach, 2012;Khatib & Taie, 2016), can help distribute focuses on Basic Interpersonal Communication skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic language Proficiency (CALP) more evenly throughout the curriculum. Such a matrix can help practitioners consider how to include both higher-and lower-order thinking skills (HOTS and LOTS) into their lessons.…”

Exploring Grade 6 mathematics teachers' use of the language of learning and teaching in assessment for learning

“…The Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skill (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) measurements proposed by Cummins (1979Cummins ( , 2000 drew our attention to language development for second language users. BICS refers to a learner's ability to communicate, and CALP measures the learner's ability to understand and use the academic language as Khatib and Taie (2016) have noted. Cummins (1979) pointed to a direct relationship between language proficiency and the academic performance of learners.…”