S. history, algebra, or life science" (Echevarria & Short 5). Students receive academic support in abstract-level reasoning as well as instruction in ESL. SIOP classrooms are extremely individuated, to take advantage of different levels of academic as well as linguistic proficiency. Perhaps the most valuable insight of the BICS/CALS model is that it highlights how "problems arise when teachers and administrators think that a child is proficient in a language when they demonstrate good social English" (Hayes 2004, cited by Hernandez). For example, the child of Cambodian immigrants might have great experience in interpreting for their parents, and know how to speak English at a high level to order in a restaurant or to talk to customers at their parent's store, but they may have had little education in conventional academic subjects. In contrast, some ESL students have "strong academic backgrounds before they came to the U.S." And are even above equivalent grade levels in the school's curricula, in math and science" (Echevarria & Short 3). They are comfortable with abstract thinking, even if their English may be weak on a spoken level -- perhaps even weaker than students whose grammar and academic education needs far more substantial support.

Other students "arrive at our schoolhouse doors with very limited formal schooling -- perhaps due to war in their native countries or the remote, rural location of their home. These students are not literate in their native languages" and have little experience with formal schooling (Echevarria & Short 3-4). These...

Academic language acquisition is more than simply understanding vocabulary. "It includes skills such as comparing, classifying, synthesizing, evaluating, and inferring…if a child has no prior schooling or has no support in native language development, it may take seven to ten years for ELLs to catch up to their peers " (Hayes 2004, cited by Hernandez). This is not to say that such improvement is impossible, of course, but that ESL instruction must be individuated, and every student requires a unique balance between BICS and CALS instruction. A Japanese student with a strong academic background may need to learn to relax when speaking English and experiment with colloquialisms (BICS), while a fluent child of Hispanic immigrants may need academic vocabulary support and a stronger basis in grammar on a CALS level.
Works Cited

Hernandez, Myra. ESL Guide for the mainstream teacher. Trenton k-12.

Retrieved March 26, 2009 at http://www.trenton.k12.nj.us/robbins/ESL%20Guide%20for%20the%20Mainstream%20Teacher.htm#BICS%20and%20CALP

Ledbetter, Robin & Jin Seo. BICS/CALS. Cross culture Ed.

Retrieved March 26, 2009 at http://www.crosscultured.com/articles/bicscalp.pdf

Echevarria, Jana & Deborah J. Short. The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP).

SIOP Institute. Retrieved March 26, 2009 at http://www.siopinstitute.net/media/pdfs/si***.pdf