8. BICS and CALP
The acronyms BICS and CALP refer to a distinction
introduced by Cummins (1979) between Basic
Interpersonal Communicative Skills and Cognitive
Academic Language Proficiency.
Sometimes teachers and administrators think that a child
is proficient in a language when they demonstrate good
social English and that is not true.
10. BICS CALP
Language skills needed in social situations. Formal academic learning. This includes
It is the day-to-day language needed to listening, speaking, reading, and writing
interact socially with other people. about subject area content material.
Examples: When they are on the playground, Academic language acquisition isn't just the
in the lunch room, on the school bus, at understanding of content area vocabulary. It
parties, playing sports and talking on the includes transferable academic skills.
telephone.
They are not very demanding cognitively. The language becomes more cognitively
demanding. New ideas, concepts and
language are presented to the students at the
same time.
The language required is not specialized. This level of language learning is essential for
students to succeed in school.
It is acquired to a functional level within At least five years is usually required to catch
about two years of initial exposure to the up to native speakers in academic aspects of
second language. the second language.
11. Students need to go beyond social skills in order to
succeed in their professional lives in the future.
12. Transferable Academic Skills
Transferable skills are skills developed through
experience, which can be used in the workplace,
classroom, real life situations.
They are related mainly to the ability to carry out
tasks that may trascend subject boundaries.
14. What is CLIL?
Content and Language Integrated Learning
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15. 'CLIL refers to situations where subjects, or parts of
subjects, are taught through a foreign language with dual-
focussed aims, namely the learning of content, and the
simultaneous learning of a foreign language'. (Marsh,
1994)
This approach involves learning subjects such as history,
geography or others, through an additional language. It
can be very successful in enhancing the learning of
languages and other subjects, and developing in the
youngsters a positive ‘can do’ attitude towards themselves
as language learners. (Marsh, 2000)
16.
17. CLIL PROJECT 1D, SOCIAL STUDIES
(See In Sync 2A Student Book, page 11)
MATERIALS NEEDED:
--CLIL Project 1D handout
--A big piece of paper or cardboard
--Pens/pencils
--Scissors
--Glue or tape
--Photos or pictures of teens doing free-time activities (Note for teacher: If students
are going to work on the project in class, bring some pictures for them to use or remind
them in advance to bring pictures from magazines or the Internet.)
PAIRS Make a poster about the favorite free-time activities of teenagers in your country.
Follow the instructions below and use your notes from your pair discussion. (See
Student Book 2A, page 73, CLIL Project 1D.)
1 Make a list of the favorite free-time activities of teenagers in your country.
1 ____________________________________________
2 ____________________________________________
3 ____________________________________________
4 ____________________________________________
5 ____________________________________________
2 Find photos or draw pictures of teens doing the activities. Paste the pictures on a big
piece of paper or cardboard. Write one or two sentences next to each picture to describe
what the people are doing.
For example:
FREE-TIME ACTIVITIES
Teenagers in my country often listen to music on their cell phones.
3 Present your poster to your class. Compare your poster with your classmates' posters.
Do they have the same activities on their posters?
19. How to integrate CLIL in the classroom
1) CONTENT ELECTION
• Topics already familiar to students.
• Topics may include cultural aspects.
• Different perspectives to introduce information: written, oral,
auditive, visual
• Quality rather than quantity.
• Possibility for students to ‘manipulate’ content and follow up with
discussions and project works.
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20. 2) LANGUAGE ADAPTATION TO CONTENT
• Language objectives are derived from topics in the content areas.
• Language(syntax, vocabulary) is simplified in written and spoken
communication (‘comprehensible input hypothesis’ by Krashen).
• Situations
should be provided so that students use L2 productively:
summarizing, paraphrasing, reacting, giving an opinion
(‘comprehensible output hypothesis’ by Swain).
• Teachers analyze content and based on that decide what language
should be taught.
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21. Content is the cornerstone of learning, and language
teaching derives from it.
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22. Student benefits
•increased motivation;
•meaningful use of English to reach immediate, real-life goals;
•development of multicultural awareness;
•preparation for future studies and work in a global context.
In addition, as Berton (2008) states, “learners will develop linguistic
and communicative competencies by using language as a tool in a
natural and innovative way.”
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