BICS , CALP and CUP:
Second Langauge Proficiency and Learning Theory
Bilingual and English as a Second Language (ESL) educators commonly refer to two types of English language proficiency: Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). Jim Cummins coined these terms in 1980. The distinction between these two types of language proficiency is important because, Cummins found that while most students learned sufficient English to engage in social communication in about two years, it took five to seven years to acquire the type of language skills needed for successful participation in content classrooms. English language learners' language skills are often informally assessed upon the ability of the student to comprehend and respond to conversational language. However, students who are proficient in social situations may not be prepared for the academic, context-reduced, and literacy demands of mainstream classrooms. Judging students' language proficiency based on oral and/or social language assessments becomes problematic when the students perform well in social conversations but do poorly on academic tasks. The students may be incorrectly tagged as having learning deficits or may even be referred for testing as learning disabled.
As Cummins suggested later, the terms BICS and CALP tend to be imprecise, value-laden, simplified, and misused to stereotype the language proficiency of English language learners (Baker, 1993). Cummins (1984) addressed this problem through a theoretical framework, which embeds the CALP language proficiency concept within a larger theory of Common Underlying Proficiency ( CUP ). The three terms are discussed below.
Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS)
The commonly used acronym BICS describes social, conversational language used for oral communication. Also described as social language, this type of communication offers many cues to the listener and is context-embedded language. Usually it takes about two years for students from different linguistic backgrounds to comprehend context-embedded social language readily. English language learners can comprehend social language by:
- observing speakers' non-verbal behavior (gestures, facial expressions and eye actions);
- observing others' reactions;
- using voice cues such as phrasing, intonations, and stress;
- observing pictures, concrete objects, and other contextual cues which are present; and
- asking for statements to be repeated, and/or clarified.
Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP)
CALP is the context-reduced language of the academic classroom. It takes five to seven years for English language learners to become proficient in the language of the classroom because:
- non-verbal clues are absent;
- there is less face-to-face interaction;
- academic language is often abstract;
- literacy demands are high (narrative and expository text and textbooks are written beyond the language proficiency of the students); and
- cultural/linguistic knowledge is often needed to comprehend fully.
Common Underlying Proficiency ( CUP )
Cummins' common underlying proficiency model of bilingualism can be pictorially represented in the form of two icebergs. The two icebergs are separate above the surface. That is, two languages are visibly different in outward conversation. Underneath the surface, the two icebergs are fused such that the two languages do not function separately. Both languages operate through the same central processing system.
Language proficiency alone will not determine when English language learners are prepared to use their second language (L 2 ) to learn with their grade level monolingual English-speaking peers. Previous schooling, academic knowledge and literacy skills that second language learners have in their first language (L 1 ) are also strong determiners (Cummins, 1984, Baker, 1993). Cummins' framework may be summarized as follows:
- Regardless of the language in which a person is operating, the thoughts that accompany talking, reading, writing, and listening come from the same central engine. When a person owns two or more languages, there is one integrated source of thought.
- Bilingualism and multilingualism are possible because people have the capacity to store two or more languages. People can function in two or more languages with relative ease.
- Information processing skills and educational attainment may be developed through two languages as well as through one language. Cognitive functioning and school achievement may be fed through one monolingual channel or equally successfully through two well-developed language channels. Both channels feed the same central processor.
- The language the child is using in the classroom needs to be sufficiently well developed to be able to process the cognitive challenges of the classroom .
- Speaking, listening, reading or writing in the first or the second language helps the whole cognitive system to develop. However, if children are made to operate in an insufficiently developed second language, the system will not function well. If children are made to operate in the classroom in a poorly developed second language, the quality and quantity of what they learn from complex materials and produce in oral and written form may be relatively weak.
Sources:
Baker, C. (1993). Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism . Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Cummins, J. (1980). The construct of language proficiency in bilingual education. In J.E. Alatis (ed.) Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics . Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.
Cummins, J. (1984). Wanted: A theoretical framework for relating language proficiency to academic achievement among bilingual students. In C. Rivera (ed.), Language Proficiency and Academic Achievement . Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Teacher Today , IER, Volume 5, No. 4, 1990