Social vs. Academic Language

Everyday English ≠ Academic English

With exposure and practice, students are likely to become proficient in “Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills” (BICS). Second language researchers describe BICS as social language which involves the ability to carry on a conversation in familiar everyday settings. Researchers suggest that BICS take two or so years to acquire and represent about 10 per cent of the language and communications skills of an academically competent learner (Roessingh, 2006, p. 92).

What underlies academic success is the mastery of academic English, or “Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency” (CALP). In his classic article, Jim Cummins (1981) suggested that “CALP reflects an individual’s access to and command of the specialized vocabulary, functions and registers of language that are characteristic of the social institution of schooling.” CALP, according to second language research, takes between five and seven years to develop. What is important for classroom teachers to understand is that regardless of the level of oral proficiency or BICS, students benefit from interventions and strategies to enhance their mastery of academic lanaguage.

While everyday and academic English can and should be developed simultaneously, there are key differences in form and function, as summarized below.

Everyday English:

• Face-to-face conversation

• Talk, read and write about what is happening here and now

• Use high-frequency and familiar vocabulary in simple sentences

• Describe “my” lived experience

Academic English:

• Understand content of presentations, videos, discussions

• Talk, read and write about more abstract content

• Use low-frequency vocabulary and more complex sentences

• Describe actions, ideas, theories, frameworks