• DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-02321-2_6-1
• Corpus ID: 2584563

BICS and CALP: Empirical and Theoretical Status of the Distinction

@inproceedings{Cummins2015BICSAC,
  title={BICS and CALP: Empirical and Theoretical Status of the Distinction},
  author={Jim Cummins},
  year={2015}
}

• J. Cummins
• Published 2015
• Philosophy

(CALP) was introduced by Cummins (1979, 1981a) in order to draw educators’ attention to the timelines and challenges that second language learners encounter as they attempt to catch up to their peers in academic aspects of the school language. BICS refers to conversational fluency in a language while CALP refers to students’ ability to understand and express, in both oral and written modes, concepts and ideas that are relevant to success in school. The terms conversational fluency and academic language proficiency are used interchangeably with BICS and CALP in the remainder of this chapter. Initially, I describe the origins, rationale, and evolution of the distinction together with its empirical foundations. I then discuss its relationship to similar theoretical constructs that have been proposed in different contexts and for different purposes. Finally, I analyze and respond to critiques of the distinction and discuss the relationship of the distinction to the emerging field of New Literacy studies (e.g. Barton, 1994; Street, 1995).