1. Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (bics)

Experts such as Jim Cummins differentiate between social and academic language acquisition. Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) are language skills needed in social situations. It is the day-to-day language needed to interact socially with other people. English language learners (ELLs) employ BIC skills when they are in the lunch room, on the bus, at parties, playing sports and talking on the telephone. Social interactions are usually context embedded. They occur in a meaningful social context. They are not very demanding cognitively. The language required is not specialized. University students can develop these language skills usually within six months to two years after starting their ESL course.

In fact the 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. As it takes about two years for students from different linguistic backgrounds to acquire context-embedded social language readily, ESL 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 ( CALP) Proficiency is the basis for a student’s ability to cope with the academic demands placed upon her/him in the various subjects.

CALP refers to formal academic learning: listening, speaking, reading, and writing about subject area content material. CALP usually takes from five to seven years because: there is less face-to-face interaction; academic language is often abstract; literacy demands are high (narrative and expository texts and textbooks are written beyond the language proficiency of the students); and cultural/linguistic knowledge is often needed to comprehend fully.

Implications for mainstream teachers

We should not assume that non-native speakers who have attained a high degree of fluency and accuracy in everyday spoken English have the corresponding academic language proficiency. This may help us to avoid labelling students who exhibit this disparity as having special educational needs when all they need is more time. The non-native speakers in your classes, who have exited from the ESL program, are still, in most cases, in the process of catching up with their native speaking peers.

2. Common underlying proficiency (cup)

Jim Cummins also advances the theory that there is a common underlying proficiency (CUP) between two languages. Skills, ideas and concepts students learn in their first language will be transferred to the second language.

Briefly stated, Cummins believes that in the course of learning one language a child acquires a set of skills and implicit metalinguistic knowledge that can be drawn upon when later working in another language. This common underlying proficiency (CUP), as he calls these skills and knowledge, is illustrated in the diagram below. It can be seen that the CUP provides the base for the development of both the first language (L1) and the second language (L2). It follows that any expansion of CUP that takes place in one language will have a beneficial effect on the other language(s). This theory also serves to explain why it becomes easier and easier to learn additional languages.

L1 L2 CULP