Part 1: Study notes on BICS and CALP (video) and Cummins’ Quadrant A, B, C, D model (Chapter 13, Coelho)
Dr. Cummins says that BICS stands for Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills while CALP stands for Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency. Further, he says that the main difference between the two is that while BICS is useful in the assessment of fluency or the capability of fluency, CALP is mostly used in the assessment of academic performance like reading skills. He says that a situation may arise where a leaner may perform well in language fluency while being very poor in reading skills something that triggered his study. When a case like this happens, teachers may wrongly judge that the learner has some learning disability of the language or that the learner has a pressing need while actually, they are in their normal development stage of learning the new language.
Additionally, Dr. Cummins says that when the teacher understands these different forms of components of assessing the academic language proficiency like reading, writing skills and vocabulary knowledge they shall be capable of administering cognitive tests in languages to students without the bias of whether they are natives speakers or learners.
Figure 1: Cummins’ Quadrant A, B, C, D Model
From the figure 1 above, the scaffolding shows the degree of support a required by a learner to help them participate well in lessons taught in English. At maximum scaffolding, which marks the end of the continuum, the language becomes very familiar to the learner, and he/she can communicate fluently while incorporating facial cues, visual cues, their hands, they can link to past knowledge, they have ease of the language mastery and can are very competent with comprehension tasks.
At cognitive demand, the learner is basic demands are placed in the thinking process of the learner while at cognitively undemanding the language becomes simple to the learner, and they can easily understand information presented in the English language as well as presenting facts about based on a certain topic written in English.
At quadrant A (Comfort zone), learners are presented with engaging but less demanding tasks. At quadrant B, (Learning/ Engagement zone) students are presented with tasks that are highly demanding academically. At quadrant C (Zone of increased autonomy), the learner has presented with more challenging tasks academically. At quadrant D (boredom zone), is the where the learner understands nothing about the language derailing the process of academic language development.
Part 2: Assessment Ideas for Writing and Listening
Writing Assessment Ideas
v Firstly, identify the level of difficulty, writing of the student
v Assess their difference in knowledge between writing and reading skills
v Determine their time of stay in the new country if they are immigrants those with 5-7 years in an English speaking language are expected to have basic knowledge of the English Language
v Assess their writing skills, and vocabulary knowledge
v Match their capability with their stage of development in language learning to know the nature of assistance required
v Address any special requirement if writing capability does not match the stage of development
Listening Assessment Ideas
v Identify the time the learner has been in the new country
v Determine the learner level of understanding of the vocabulary in the English language
v Determine if they have fluency in speaking English or if they have any difficulties with writing it
v Determine their stage of in English learning using the Cummins Quadrant A, B, C, and D Model
v Place them in the appropriate quadrant and offer them the required listening skills
v Address any special needs they may require if they perform lower than it is required at their quadrant
References
Coelho, Chapter 13, p. 280-310
Gibbons, Chapter 7, p. 206-232
West Middle School (2016, October 19). Dr. Jim Cummins explains the differences between BICS and CALP: [Video file]: Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-JvqObf5qk
