Speaking More Than One Language: Why It Matters in Schools

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Speaking More Than One Language: Why It Matters in Schools

Educational Psychology · Chapter 5: Identity, Language, Morality, and the Whole ChildSection 5.3 · lesson 40 of 1009 min · free with a free account

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In this lesson

BICS and CALP, code-switching, and language as an asset.

  • List the cognitive advantages associated with bilingualism
  • Distinguish BICS from CALP and their development timelines
  • Explain why code-switching indicates proficiency
  • Apply translanguaging and scaffolding to a content lesson

Transcript

Everything said in the video, section by section (1,093 words). Read along, or search it.

Identity, Language, Morality, and the Whole Child

Speaking More Than One Language: Why It Matters in Schools

A student chats easily with classmates at lunch. The same student cannot write a paragraph analyzing a text. That combination gets misread constantly, and the misreading has consequences. This section is about multilingual students in school. We will start with the cognitive advantages of bilingualism, which are real. Then Cummins's distinction between two kinds of language proficiency. That distinction explains the puzzle we just described. Then code-switching, which is a skill rather than a confusion. And five strategies that actually support multilingual learners. The theme is that a home language is an asset, not an obstacle.

The Multilingual Class

An Asset Read as a Liability

Classrooms in this century are increasingly multilingual. In the United States alone, millions of students speak another language at home. And the research on this is consistent. Bilingualism and multilingualism are not liabilities. They confer significant cognitive, social and academic advantages. Bilingual individuals show enhanced executive function. Superior attention control. Greater cognitive flexibility. And stronger metalinguistic awareness. That last one deserves definition. Metalinguistic awareness is the ability to think about language as a system. Someone who has held two systems side by side can see that both are systems.

The Risk

Misreading Proficiency as Capacity

Despite those advantages, multilingual students face systemic challenges. School settings largely privilege English. And that creates a specific and damaging error. Teachers may misidentify limited English proficiency as cognitive deficiency. The student cannot yet say what they think in this language. So it looks like they are not thinking it. That misreading undermines student confidence. And it restricts academic opportunity, sometimes for years. The remedy is a distinction, and it is the core of this section. Separate everyday conversational language from academic language. The language of the playground is not the language of an essay. Effective instruction scaffolds both, and does not confuse them.

Cummins

BICS and CALP

Jim Cummins introduced the distinction that names those two things. The first is basic interpersonal communication skills. It is usually abbreviated as BICS. This is everyday language, used in social contexts. Greetings, casual conversation, playground talk. It typically takes one to two years to develop in a new language. The second is cognitive academic language proficiency. Abbreviated as CALP. This is the academic language needed to read textbooks and write essays. And to engage in disciplinary reasoning. It may take five to seven years or more to develop fully. The gap between those two timelines is where the misreading happens.

Consequences

What the Distinction Prevents

That distinction has critical implications for assessment. Consider the student we started with. They chat confidently with classmates. And they struggle to write a persuasive paragraph. They are not cognitively deficient. They are in the process of developing academic language proficiency. Understanding this prevents a specific institutional harm. It prevents premature referrals to special education. Instead, educators can provide targeted academic language support. Vocabulary instruction, aimed at the words that carry the discipline. Sentence frames, which supply the syntax. And genre-specific writing scaffolds, because an essay has a shape.

Key Idea

Code-Switching Is a Skill

Here is the key idea of this section. Code-switching is alternating between languages in one conversation. Or within one text. It is very often misunderstood as linguistic confusion. The student, on that reading, has not fully learned either language. That reading is wrong. Code-switching is a sophisticated cognitive skill. It reflects high proficiency in both languages, not low proficiency in either. Research shows that code-switching follows grammatical rules. And that it serves important social and communicative functions. So educators who treat it as a deficit miss an opportunity. The switch is evidence of competence, not evidence of its absence.

Five Strategies

What Support Looks Like

Five strategies are worth knowing by name. Translanguaging lets students draw on all their languages. For example, pairing a student with a bilingual peer for concept discussion. Sentence frames provide academic language scaffolds. In this text, the author argues that. And then the student continues. Visual supports anchor meaning with images and diagrams. Concept maps with pictures beside the vocabulary words. Cultural texts bring in literature from students' home cultures. Bilingual picture books in the class library. And content plus language teaches both simultaneously. A science lesson that targets the concept and the vocabulary together. Notice that none of these slows the content down.

Translanguaging

All Languages, One Repertoire

Translanguaging deserves a slower look. It is a pedagogical approach with a specific claim. All of a student's languages are integrated resources for learning. Not separate systems to be kept carefully apart. In practice, that permits something many classrooms forbid. A student may discuss a concept in their home language. Then express that same concept in English. The thinking happens in whichever language it happens in. Compare that with a model where the home language is tolerated. Tolerated as a temporary crutch, on the way to English. Translanguaging treats it as part of the cognitive toolkit. Permanently, and not as a stage to be passed through.

In Practice

A Seventh-Grade Science Class

Here is all of this running in a seventh-grade science class. The teacher has a newly arrived student who speaks Mandarin at home. She knows the difference between conversational and academic language. So she does four specific things. She provides a bilingual glossary of key science terms. She uses diagrams heavily, which carry meaning without English. She pairs the student with a Mandarin-English bilingual peer for lab work. And she supplies sentence starters for classroom discussion. Within weeks, the student participates in those discussions. Despite still developing English fluency. That is the important part of the result. Participation did not have to wait for proficiency.

Additive

Adding Without Subtracting

There is a term for doing this well. Additive bilingualism. It means adding a second language while maintaining and valuing the first. The alternative is subtractive, and it costs something real. When schools treat home languages as problems to be overcome, rather than as assets to be cultivated, they communicate something to students. That their cultural identities are unwelcome here. That erodes engagement, and it erodes belonging. And notice that this is not only an equity cost. It is a cognitive one. The displaced language was part of how that student thinks.

Why It Matters

Affirming Multilingual Identities

So what does affirming multilingual identity actually involve? Three moves, and they are practical rather than symbolic. Validate. Treat multilingual identities as legitimate. And say so explicitly, rather than by omission. Make space. Create room for home language use in the classroom. Not only in the corridor, where it happens anyway. Leverage. Design instruction that uses the full cognitive toolkit. The toolkit multilingual students already bring with them. Culturally responsive teaching means something specific in this context. It means recognizing what a student's other language actually is. It is not an obstacle standing between you and their thinking. Much of the time, it is where their thinking currently is.

About Educational Psychology at UPI Study

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Educational Psychology carries a NCCRS credit recommendation. These universities work with NCCRS; some are UPI Study's signed partners. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.

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FAQ

Questions students ask us

About Speaking More Than One Language: Why It Matters in Schools

What is the difference between BICS and CALP?
BICS (basic interpersonal communication skills) is everyday social language, such as greetings and playground talk, while CALP (cognitive academic language proficiency) is the academic language needed to read textbooks, write essays and reason within a discipline. Jim Cummins introduced the distinction. BICS typically develops in one to two years in a new language, but CALP may take five to seven years or more, which explains why a fluent conversationalist can still struggle with academic writing.
What are the cognitive benefits of being bilingual?
Research has associated bilingualism with enhanced executive function, better attention control, greater cognitive flexibility and stronger metalinguistic awareness, which is the ability to think about language as a system. Bilingual students also bring social and academic strengths. Even so, schools that privilege English sometimes mistake limited English proficiency for a cognitive deficiency, a misreading that can undermine confidence and restrict a student's academic opportunities.
Is code-switching a sign of language confusion?
No, code-switching, which is alternating between languages within one conversation or text, generally reflects high proficiency in both languages rather than low proficiency in either. Research shows it follows grammatical rules and serves real social and communicative functions. Treating it as a deficit misses an opportunity, since the ability to move smoothly between two language systems is evidence of linguistic competence.
What is translanguaging in the classroom?
Translanguaging is a teaching approach that treats all of a student's languages as one integrated set of resources for learning rather than separate systems to keep apart. In practice, a student might discuss a science concept in their home language with a bilingual peer and then express it in English. It fits an additive bilingualism model, in which a second language is added while the first is maintained and valued rather than replaced.

About the Educational Psychology course

How many college credits is Educational Psychology?
Educational Psychology (Psychology 120) carries a NCCRS credit recommendation for 3 semester credits. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.
How much does Educational Psychology cost and what is included?
$250, paid once, with lifetime access: all 100 video lessons, a practice quiz after each, the graded work and final exam, and an official transcript when you finish. Students who want several courses choose UPI Study PRO instead.
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It is self-paced with no deadlines. The 100 lessons total about 15 hours of video; most students add reading and practice time and finish in a few weeks to a few months, on their own schedule.
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Ready for the full course? Earn 3 credits in Educational Psychology.

100 video lessons, a quiz after each one, and the graded work that earns the credit. Recommended for credit by NCCRS.

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