Why are ESL students able to converse

but cannot do their classwork?

SOCIAL LANGUAGE VS. SCHOOL LANGUAGE OR BICS VS. CALPS!!!!

SOCIAL LANGUAGE
(2-3 years to develop)

BICS
Basic Interpersonal
Communication Skills

CALP

ACADEMIC LANGUAGE
(7-10 years to develop)

COGNITIVE ACADEMIC LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY

BASIC INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS SKILLS OR BICS is the form of

language that is commonly associated with conversations in the hallway, or before
class, or at some kind of recreational or social event.
It takes approximately 2-3 years for students to become proficient in BICS. BICS is
also manifested in relation to CONCRETE concepts.
Many times teachers are confounded by the fact that their ESL students have
developed BICS proficiency but appear to have little success in the formal
classroom setting. Thats because the students have not yet developed CALP
COGNITIVE ACADEMIC LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY.
CALP is what your student must develop if they are going to be able to make sense
out of the abstract concepts you are trying to teach them. And COGNITIVE
ACADEMIC LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY can take up to 7 or perhaps 10 years to
acquire!!!!
If a student has developed CALP in there native language, then our job is to
facilitate the transfer of CALP by giving the student new labels for the abstract
concepts they are familiar with.