BICS and CALS
Comments(1) Something interesting that I’ve learnt surrounding the subject of our course is BICS and CALS. These BICS and CALS very from student to student and from language learner to language learner. But there are some overall understandings that can help us as teachers.
BICS are a students Basic interpersonal communication skills. To form these skills students need to interact with others in social situations. The language transfer will be in day to day language that one needs to interact with others. On average, these language skills develop after 6 months to two years. Students pick up these skills on the play ground, in the lunch room, while talking on the phone, etc. BICS is just on of the many reasons why, as teachers, we need to push out students to talk to people they would not normally talk to. And we need to assign groups where every student will feel comfortable speaking in English.
CAPS, on the other hand, is a students Cognitive academic language proficiency. This is the formal language that students learn. This comes from listening, reading, writing, and speaking about content based material. For a ELL it usually takes 5 to 7 years to fully develop these skills. 5 to 7 years!! Is is clear that this is a lot longer then it take to acquire BICs. As a result teachers need to find ways of enforcing CAPs in their classrooms and try to find methods that will help their ELLs understand this language more easily.
I agreed with you (whoever you are)! BICS and CAPS are profoundly important not only in ELL classrooms, but also in other disciplines. Also, strong socialization skills are crucial regardless of the path one chooses to pursue. I went to Killarney secondary in east Vancouver. I also did my undergraduate in Vancouver as well. By default I am a shy person. Throughout high school and post-secondary I was the person who never participated in classroom discussions in any way. As a matter of fact, whenever the teacher asked a question to the class, I would literally be sitting all the way in the back and internally saying to myself, “Please don’t call my name.” Likewise, during small group discussions, I would never be the first to talk and be the last to talk (if I had to that is). On the same page, throughout my post-secondary classrooms/lecture halls experiences, I was not the person who had to sit all the way in the back and prayed to God that the instructor will not have to pick on me to speak this time (instructors in general never pick on anyone – thus, the instructors (most) do not even know your name). This is why the Bachelor of Education is especially beneficial for me. Not only do I have the opportunity to presentations for all my classes, but I have the opportunity to participate in classroom discussions and socializing with my peers when I see them in the hallway and in the bus.