CREATE AN OPENING TAB: My student speaks English.  Why does he/she still need ESL?  -OR- Why is he/she struggling in regular ed classes?

There is a difference between social language (everyday speaking & listening/ playground language) and academic (in the classroom) language acquisition! 

BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) covers everyday speaking & listening skills. 

-Cognitively undemanding language

-Naturally acquired in first 6 months-2 years of living in country

-Day to day language needed to interact socially with others

-Occur in meaningful social contexts

-Vocabulary not specialized

-Conversational fluency in a second language does not necessarily mean that they will perform well academically in the same language.

CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency) is language that goes beyond content area vocabulary. 

-Generally takes 5-7 years to develop

-Can take 7-10 years if student has no prior schooling or lack of support in native language development.

-Includes listening, speaking, reading, & writing about subject content.

-Also includes comparing, classifying, evaluating, synthesizing, & inferring.

-The highly abstract, decontextualized communication that takes place in the   

classroom.

-Prerequisite for learning to read and write for overall academic success.

“The mistake that teachers and administrators make is to think that once the child masters BICS and socially interacts with other students, they will be just as strong academically.”