There are two levels of language competency that English language learners develop: - Basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) develop within 1-3 years and allow for conversational interactions. - Cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) takes 5-7 years to fully develop and requires more advanced vocabulary for academic success in school.

1. BICS vs. CALP

2. Translate My name is __________________ (insert your own name in blank). I am thirsty. May I please have a drink of water? After we finished school in June, my family spent our summer vacation visiting relatives in Eritrea.

3. Translate Worms are called decomposers. They have a special job, which is to eat leaves, grass, and other things in nature to help break them down into smaller pieces. We are going to study worms more closely by making a compost bag. Your math homework sheet is a review of everything we have learned so far this year: working long-division problems with double-digit divisors, calculating the area and perimeter of various quadrilaterals, working with fractions and decimals, and calculating averages. Typical 1 st grade Science Curriculum Typical 5th grade Math Curriculum

4. Discussion English Language Learners (ELLs) or English Learners (ELs) develop second-language competency at two levels. Basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) develop within one to three years; this is language pertaining primarily to conversational interactions. Cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) takes between five to seven years to develop fully and requires the more advanced vocabulary skills necessary to be successful in school.

5. Background Knowledge Matters! Do you know what this sentence means? THE DIFFICULTY OF YOUR SET COULD BE INCREASED IF YOU DO A JAM FOLLOWED BY A PEACH. Jones, R. (2006, July 19). ReadingQuest | Background Knowledge Example . Retrieved October 15, 2009, from http://www.readingquest.org/premises.html

6. Translation Translation: The point values you can earn on your gymnastics routine can be bigger if you include, in sequence, two particular skills on the uneven parallel bars: the "jam," which leaves the gymnast sitting on the high bar; and the "peach," where the gymnast moves from the high bar to the low bar. You would have to know specialized terminology in gymnastics in order to be able to understand this sentence. It is very “context” dependant . Jones, R. (2006, July 19). ReadingQuest | Background Knowledge Example . Retrieved October 15, 2009, from http://www.readingquest.org/premises.html