BICS and CALP and CUP

TESOL Teacher Preparation in Namibia

May 2013

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

• CALP = Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency

The language necessary for day-to-day living, conversations with friends and family, informal

interactions

The language necessary to understand and discuss content in school

Context

embeddedreduced

Cognition

undemanding

demanding

Context + Cognition undemanding

embedded reduced

demanding

Context + Cognition undemanding

embedded reduced

demanding

A= context embedded + cognitively

undemanding

Context + Cognition undemanding

embedded reduced

demanding

Talking with friendsBuying lunch

Playing sports

Context + Cognition undemanding

embedded reduced

demanding

B=context embedded + cognitively

demanding

Context + Cognition undemanding

embedded reduced

demanding

DemonstrationsScience experiments

Lessons with AV

Context + Cognition undemanding

embedded reduced

demanding

C= context reduced + cognitively

undemanding

Context + Cognition undemanding

embedded reduced

demanding

Telephone conversationsFriend’s shopping listWritten instructions

Context + Cognition undemanding

embedded reduced

demanding

D=context reduced + cognitively

demanding

Context + Cognition undemanding

embedded reduced

demanding

Reading and writingStandardized tests

Most content classes

BICS

• Used at home, on the playground, talking with friends about the weekend

• Children entering Kindergarten have well-developed BICS

• Receptive and expressive• 2500 words• 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

The Iceberg Theory

LANGUAGE COGNITIONPhonology KnowledgeVocab ComprehensionSyntax ApplicationSemantics AnalysisFunction Synthesis

EvaluationCreation

Common Underlying Proficiency (CUP)

L1 L2

CUP

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, theoretically7. 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

Cross-Curricular Content Objectives

• Environmental Education• Population Education • Information Technology• Human Rights and Democracy• HIV and AIDS• Gender Issues