Learning
Acquisition vs Language Learning
http://www.sdkrashen.com/content/articles/2013_siop_research_support_bclaims.pdf
There are opposing views in the field of language
acquisition, The “Skill-Building” Hypothesis and The Comprehension Hypothesis. The
Comprehension Hypothesis claims that language is acquired and literacy is
developed in one way which is by understanding messages that we hear and read.
According to this Hypothesis, language acquisition happens subconsciously, and
it is not acquired by studying grammar rules or memorizing vocabulary lists. The “Skill-Building” Hypothesis depends on
conscious learning. It holds that
students first need to learn and master grammar, vocabulary and spelling skills
before using them in real situations (Krashen, 2013) .
Stephen Krashen, professor emeritus at the
University of Southern California, and world renowned linguist, educational researcher
and activist explains that there is overwhelming evidence that supports The
Comprehension Hypothesis which holds that nearly all of our competence in
language comes from understanding what we hear and read as opposed to what we
speak and write. However, our ability to
speak and write is a result of receiving comprehensible input. Studies
have long shown that students who read more, have develop higher abilities in
vocabulary, reading and writing. Krashen
emphasizes the effectiveness of student free voluntary reading.
Jim Cummins, a world leader in the field of second
language acquisition makes an important distinction between BICS and CALP in
this video (Cummins, 2013) – BICS stands for Basic Interpersonal
Communicative Skills are the basic language skills we use in everyday
conversation. CALP stands for Cognitive
Academic Language Proficiency which is the language in academic sources such as
text books. BICS is the language that small
children take to preschool and kindergarten.
It is the language they use ask questions and hold simple conversations
with their friends and teachers. Our
goal as educators is to expand their conversational skill into the academic
realm over the course of their education.
We want to expand from basic familiar high frequency vocabulary and
basic grammatical expressions into the realm of lower frequency vocabulary,
complex grammatical structures and academic language(Cummins, 2013).
Cummins notes that literacy is very much rule
governed. Discreet language skills such
as – phonemic awareness, phonics and spelling are taught. Decoding skills are taught using high
frequency words. Second language learners
can pick up these skills as well as conversational skills relatively quickly -
within two or three years. However, they
may still have large gaps in their knowledge of English when expanding into low
frequency vocabulary, more complex grammatical structures not commonly used,
discourse conventions. Academic language
acquisition our ability to interpret produce
increasingly complex language of text
books, passive voice, low frequency words that have Greek and Latin roots language we don’t use in everyday conversation(Cummins, 2013).
Teaching vocabulary and grammatical rules out
of context is difficult for second language learners. They need to be taught patterns in vocabulary
such as Latin and Greek based roots, suffixes and prefixes along with the
passive voice and the language in the content areas of math, social studies and
science(Cummins, 2013).
To summarize, while conversational fluency and discreet
language skills may take one to three years to acquire, academic proficiency will
take at least five to seven years and sometimes longer. Just because a student is speaking fluently
they are far from showing it on a cognitive academic assessment. The question of “Where do children find
academic language?” must be asked and answered.
They find it in printed text, text books and in the classroom, so unless
children are reading extensively they are not accessing the academic language
they need to become successful in the classroom.
View video at: Jim Cummins explains the differnces between BICS and CALP
Cummins, D. J. (2013). Dr. Jim Cummins explains the
differences between BICS and CALP. (T. A. Inc., Interviewer)
Krashen, S. (2013). Does SIOP Research Support SIOP
Claims. International Journal of Foreing Language Teaching. 8(1), 11-24.