If you start out with CLIL, your main concern is probably mastering the second language you have to teach in. Soon after though, if you start to learn a little bit more about CLIL, you will hear about BICS and CALP.  After reading this post, you will understand them perfectly!

To be able to start teaching with CLIL I think you need to understand some basic things first. Among those the most important question: What is CLIL?

If you read about CLIL you will soon find many phrases commonly used in combination with CLIL, like "Scaffolding", "Bloom" or "Lesson Planning".

BICS & CALP are also among the most common key terms when talking about CLIL. However, they differ from the other mentioned key terms because these phrases do not focus on learning, but rather on language itself. 

Or, even better, language learning.

Jim Cummins, a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto, came up with these phrases in 1984 (!!) when he encountered challenges with categorizing learning problems of students who were studying in a second language.

In his opinion, students who seemed to talk without a lot of problems still seemed to miss out on more academic skills. However, there was no way to categorize that.

That is when he came up with BICS and CALP

Without further ado: BICS stands voor Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills.

Or, in normal English, Basic Language Skills.

This is the level of language a person has when communicating in everyday life or class situations and is used particularly in informal communication.

Examples of BICS might be:

Understanding written worksheets, understanding and using non-verbal communication and understanding and using simple and short texts

Now that you know about BICS, you might understand a little better what CALP is. 

The abbreviation stands for: Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency.

Or, in normal English, Academic Language use.

CALP is the language necessary to understand and discuss content in the classroom or at University (or other Academic environments)

Examples of CALP might be: writing an essay, understanding a scientific paper or reading content area textbooks.

Because this knowledge is not just out there for knowledge sake.

The reason Professor Cummins figured out these different categories, is because he observed students in school situations and found the models that were used lacking.

In other words: using BICS and CALP we can help our students to achieve results better.

Okay, but how?

You might recognise the students that talk to you in a way that suggests they understand English really well. The language is fluent, the grammar is pretty correct and the student uses the second language in a lot of different situations.

Yet, he (or she) scores very low on certain tests.

That is where BICS and CALP comes in!

This particular student is really good at BICS, but lacks at CALP.

And more importantly: that is totally fine!​

As mentioned before, CALP takes some time to master, so we might just be asking a bit too much from our students if we expect this the first year around.

Just be aware of this difference and have a look at the language your work with. That might be the reason a student struggles.

Want to hear Jim Cummins explain the concept yourself?

Have a look at this short video. 

At the end, he explains what might go wrong if the distinction is not made.

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• Introduction to BICS
• BICS vs CALP
• Second language acquisition - essential information
• Youtube: James Cummins: BICS and CALP
• Image design by Freepik