BICS and CALP and CUP
Types of Language
• “Enabling learners to use the language with
confidence for learning in school and in daily
life.” (NIED, 2006)
• Academic Language and Social Language to
“interact meaningfully, express themselves
clearly in a variety of genres and situations
and read and critically interpret a variety of
texts” (NIED, 2006)
BICS and CALP
• BICS = Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills
The language necessary for day-to-day living,
conversations with friends and family, informal
interactions
• CALP = Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency
The language necessary to understand and discuss
content in school
Context
embedded reduced
Cognition
cognitively undemanding
cognitively demanding
Context + Cognition
cognitively undemanding
embedded reduced
cognitively demanding
Context + Cognition
undemanding
A=
context embedded + cognitively
undemanding
embedded reduced
demanding
Context + Cognition
undemanding
Talking with friends
Buying lunch
Playing sports
embedded reduced
demanding
Context + Cognition
undemanding
embedded reduced
B=
context embedded + cognitively
demanding
demanding
Context + Cognition
undemanding
embedded reduced
Demonstrations
Science experiments
Lessons with AV
demanding
Context + Cognition
undemanding
C=
context reduced + cognitively
undemanding
embedded reduced
demanding
Context + Cognition
undemanding
Telephone conversations
Friend’s shopping list
Written instructions
embedded reduced
demanding
Context + Cognition
undemanding
embedded reduced
D=
context reduced + cognitively
demanding
demanding
Context + Cognition
undemanding
embedded reduced
Reading and writing
Standardized tests
Most content classes
demanding
BICS
• Used at home, on the playground, talking with
friends about the weekend
• Children entering Kindergarten have well-
developed BICS
• 3-5 years to develop
CALP
• Necessary for school success
• Used to summarize a reading selection, write
an essay, explain bone structure
• 5-7 years to develop
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Academic language proficiency
• “Abilities to construct meaning from oral and
written language, relate complex ideas and
information, recognize features of different genres,
and use various linguistic strategies to
communicate.” (Dutro and Moran, 2003, in Zwier,
2008)
• “Set of words, grammar and organizational
strategies used to describe complex ideas, higher-
order thinking processes, and abstract concepts.”
(Zwier, 2008)
Functions of Academic Language
• To describe complexity
– Relationships between characters, complex plots, and
literary devices to interpret, and complex ideas to organize
and express in writing.
• To describe higher-order thinking
– Bloom’s Taxonomy
– Analyzing, seeking information, comparing, informing,
explaining, predicting, classifying, justifying, hypothesizing,
solving problems, synthesizing, persuading, empathizing,
interpreting, evaluation, applying (Zwier, p. 24)
Functions of Academic Language
• To describe abstraction
– “On the other hand, the two scientists had
differing views on the topic of evolution”
views? evolution? on the other hand?
The longer we are exposed to and understand a
concept, the less abstract it seems. Like SLA.
Features of Academic Language
1. Figurative expressions—include metaphors,
analogies, idioms, and other terms that use
concrete and common ideas to describe abstract
concepts and relationships. (Zwier, p. 27)
– “point of view,” “read between the lines,” on the right
track,” “grasp the concept,” “shed light on the subject”
– “key,” “class,” “support”
– Synonyms: “The likelihood of an earthquake in that
region is high. The chances of seismic activity have
increased each year since 1950.”
Features of Academic Language
2. Being explicit for “distant audiences”
– “Academic language helps the audience understand
a message, even when they cannot interact with the
speaker or writer” (Zwier, p. 29)
– What does a speaker or writer need to do when
communicating with people who do not share the
same background or knowledge? What do your
students tell their parents about school projects?
– “School language” should be explicit, preventing
misunderstanding. No vague terms like “this”
Features of Academic Language
3. Remaining detached from the message.
– Logical reasons and evidence (Valdés, 2004 in Zwier, p. 30).
– Not many feelings, first person accounts
4. Supporting points with evidence
– Provide enough good information that audiences in that
field accept.
5. Conveying nuances of meaning with modals
– The people could look for shelter elsewhere.
– Conditional sentences: predictions, cause-effect,
hypotheses
Features of Academic Language
6. Softening the message with qualifiers
– Generally, seems to, perhaps, most, some,
suggest, theoretically
7. Using prosody for emphasis
– Rising intonation for questions, loudness, pitch,
stress on syllables or words in a sentence, rate
– In English, subordinate clauses usually are not
stressed as much as main clauses, and are said
more quickly.
Features of Academic Grammar
1. Long sentences
– Cognitive resources 7 (+/- 2)
– How ideas are connected to each other
2. Passive voice
– Difficult to know the doer and receiver of the action
3. Nominalization
– Turning verbs or adjectives into noun phrases that then
become the subject or object in a clause or phrase
– Compact language, often used at the beginning of
sentences with “This”
Features of Academic Grammar
4. Condensed complex messages
– SLA (both a concept and acronym)
– Makes text shorter, but packs many ideas into one
phrase. Students must therefore understand
more ideas in one sentence.
– Yes, academic tests still have long sentences with
lots of clauses with nominals and passives
5. Clarity
– Primary goal
Objectives
• Content Objectives
• Language Objectives
Content Objectives
• Students will be able to (SWBAT)
• Students will (SW)
• We will
• Today I will
• The learner will
• Our job is to
Content Objectives—lesson-level?
• Students will be able to (SWBAT) “write complex and compound
sentences”
• Students will (SW) “organise jumbled sentences into paragraphs”
• We will “explain literal meanings in texts”
• Today I will “interact effectively and critically, using appropriate
vocabulary in social, cultural and academic contexts”
• The learner will “speak fluently and confidently when debating”
• Our job is to “convey information through a variety of
presentations and with a sense of audience”
Language Objectives
• What language will students need to know
and use to accomplish the lesson’s/unit’s
content objectives?
– Academic Vocabulary
• Content vocab
• General academic vocab
– Language Skills and Functions
– Language Structures
– Language Learning Strategies
