BICS & CALP

BICS: Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills 

These are skills needed for social, conversational situations. Research shows that learners achieve BICS faster than CALP, around two to three years of education in the additional language. So, they are BICAS are less cognitively demanding.  BICS is contextualized and supported by the teacher  and resources.

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Examples: Greetings, language to go shopping, classroom language, etc.​

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CALP ( Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency)

It is more cognitively demaning. According to Cummins, it takes learners around five years to achieve CALP.  CALP is required for academic school study. It is the language used in subject teaching. It is often abstract and formal.

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Examples: communicate about the cyle of water, the classification of animals, etc.

BENTLEY, K. The TKT Course CLIL Module. Cambridge University Press, 2010.

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Watch the video below and observe the girl's performance using BICS and CALP.