CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Profiency) is
the specific language that we need for some subjects. We must distinguish it
from BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills), which is the daily
vocabulary that we need to interact socially. It is important to separate these
two terms and understand how they work.
One problem that we can see in CALP is that students only use this specific language in the classroom. They do not have many opportunities to use this language out of the school. That is the reason why some non-CLIL students have the same CALP level than CLIL students. Usually, students do not have any chance to use BICS either, so is a good option to teach BICS in CLIL classes, because if students do not know how to use BICS, they will not be able to use CALP.
(Cummins,
1984)
On the
other hand, there are other CLIL teachers who are non-native people. Their BICS
level is usually lower than the BICS level of native people. Moreover they know
how to teach CLIL subjects, because they have been preparing themselves to do
that.
Nowadays,
due to the importance of the English language around the world, some private
schools prefer to hire native teachers without any teaching preparation rather
than non-native teachers well prepared. This is a matter that schools must
consider, thinking which is the best option for their students. 
Another thing that is important for teachers to know is that CALP skills are much harder to obtain
than BICS skills. According to academics in the USA immigrant students need two years to acquire BICS skills, and seven to learn CALP skills.
(John Clegg, 2009)
To sum up, I would like to give my personal
opinion about CALP. From my point of view, is indispensable for all the
students to learn CALP skills; otherwise, they will not be able to follow the
lessons. In addition to this, the different types of CLIL teachers that we can
find in the schools is another topic to discuss. I have always asked myself
which teacher is better for CLIL subjects, a native person without any academic
training in teaching or, a non-native person well prepared. I had the chance to
analyze this while I was doing my internship. The school where I went was a
bilingual school. The director hired a lot of English and American people, and
some of them had little preparation about how to teach. The science teacher was
a young woman, who liked children but did not have any academic training.
During her classes, the children talked a lot and they usually did not pay
attention to her explanations. When I asked her why she allowed the children to
speak that much, she answered me: They are just children, let them have some
fun! The result of this “methodology” was that the children did not learn
anything about science. They passed the exam because the teacher wanted to, but
any of them reached 5 of 10 points.
On the other hand, the 5th grade science
teacher was a Spaniard woman, who got her teaching degree six years before. I
went twice to her classes and I really liked them. Her accent was not perfect,
but she knew how to deal with her students. The children of her class did not
talk, because she established her leading position from the very first moment.
Besides that, they knew a lot of specific vocabulary of science, and their
grades, in most of the cases, were really high. These are just two examples of
different science teachers. I went to different CLIL classes and the results
were almost the same.
REFERENCES
·
BOOKS
- Llinares, A. & Morton, T. & Whittaker, R. (2012). The roles
of language in CLIL. New York: Cambridge University Press.
·
WEB
