Courses

Language learning happens on two levels, and understanding the difference helps you choose the most suitable lesson plan for your pupils’ needs.

BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) refers to the everyday language used in social, face-to-face interaction — greetings, conversations, classroom routines, and peer relationships. It is context-rich, cognitively undemanding, and typically develops within one to two years. Choose a BICS lesson plan when your priority is helping pupils build confidence, participate socially, and communicate comfortably in daily school life. Within this section, lesson plans are organised by age group, so you can select the one that best matches your pupils’ developmental stage.

CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency) refers to the more abstract, specialised language required to engage with academic content across subject areas. It is cognitively demanding and generally takes five to seven years to fully develop. Choose a CALP lesson plan when your goal is to support pupils in accessing curricular content and developing subject-specific vocabulary and academic discourse.

Both dimensions are essential and complementary: BICS provides the communicative foundation upon which CALP is gradually built.