M1A1 SEI Essay

Valerie Barnes

EDC 286 SEI Methods

M1A1 SEI Essay

Understanding the importance of language acquisition allows educators to become more aware of the comprehension of Early Language Learners in the classroom. BICS and CALPS define the social and academic language acquisition introduced by Cummins in 1979. They refer to the interpersonal skills and cognitive academic language proficiency. BICS is the Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills, which is defined as language that is used in everyday conversation and living. It is typically associated with conversations with friends, families and informal interactions. BICS is also described as social language and can offer cues to the listener by providing context-embedded language. A few ways

If you were to visualize a pyramid, imagine BICS at the top half of the pyramid and CALPS at the bottom half. According to Cummins’ Iceberg Theory, BICS would represent the surface understanding or basic comprehension, pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. Whereas, CALPS would represent the deeper level of comprehension to analyze, evaluate and interpret information. BICS is the social language acquisition whereas CALP is the academic language acquisition. Educators spend the majority of their conversation with students in Cummins model of CALPS, requiring students to internalize and comprehend the expectations of the teacher and subject content. As educators become familiar with this model and the demand it requires for ELLs, teachers can take into consideration where students are in the language process to understand the information given. There are some great strategies educators can use to increase the learning in both areas of Cummins’ Theory. In researching ideas to incorporate increased BICS and CALPS in the classroom, I came across some great activities to increase language building from Melissa Peckham. An example activity to increase BICS would be to have students practice giving directions to each other. “Have students first write down their favorite snack to eat. After students have brainstormed their favorite snacks they will then write down the directions for making that snack. When students have written down the directions they will then present their directions in pairs to each other. As a conclusion to this activity students will practice following verbal skills by making their own peanut butter sandwich following the directions of the teacher.” (Peckham M., n.d.). Peckham created some great activities for CALPS as well. One