English Proficiency & Literacy
English Proficiency
English proficiency has to do with communicative competence: the "ability to understand and use language appropriately to communicate in authentic (rather than simulated) social and school environments" (Alberta Government, 2014a). English proficiency encompasses four language strands (listening and reading [receptive], and speaking and writing [productive]), each involving four communicative competencies and one additional communicative focus.
English proficiency has to do with communicative competence: the "ability to understand and use language appropriately to communicate in authentic (rather than simulated) social and school environments" (Alberta Government, 2014a). English proficiency encompasses four language strands (listening and reading [receptive], and speaking and writing [productive]), each involving four communicative competencies and one additional communicative focus.
According to Kingwell & Clark (2002), after two years in a cooperative, English-speaking classroom, ELL students develop Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS), which enables them to socialize, write by themselves, and read stories. They fall short, however, when required to use English for academic purposes, such as writing research reports or literary essays. This Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP), required for success in all other subject areas, takes five to eight years to develop. This doesn't even take into account other factors that may affect ELL students's ability to learn, such as:
- dual language learning (Canadian-born ELL students who speak another language at home are typically 10-15000 words behind students who speak English only);
- poverty, discrimination, and culture shock (common among immigrant families);
- trauma and lack of first language literacy (especially relevant for refugees);
- malnutrition (which affects memory and inhibits language acquisition through identifying patterns--a primary skill involved in reading); and
- learning, cognitive, or behavioural disabilities (which are often overlooked or are unable to be assessed since IQ tests require a certain level of English proficiency to participate). (C. Gould, personal communication, October 16, 2014)
English Literacy
Dr. Tweedie, an instructor in the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, asserts that a literate person can access different texts at different times and discern which is appropriate when (personal communication, October 3, 2014). This involves distinguishing among a variety of genres and conventions, and being able to select the appropriate one for the situation at hand. It also encompasses critical literacy, which involves examining and understanding the underlying assumptions of a text's author and culture, and knowing how to manage, evaluate, and ethically use information (Ibid.). Alberta Education likewise defines literacy as, “acquiring, creating, connecting and communicating meaning in a wide variety of contexts” (2010b, p. 3), and notes the following:
Although there are numerous factors why students do not complete high school, one commonly cited reason is that students do not have the literacy skills to keep pace with the high school curriculum, which has become increasingly complex (Biancarosa and Snow, 2006). The transfer of literacy knowledge and skills becomes critically important in junior high and senior high school, where students are often required to use subject-specific vocabulary to demonstrate their understanding of complex text structures, formulas and graphic elements. In junior and senior high school, students encounter academic discourses and disciplinary concepts in such fields as science, mathematics and the social sciences that require different reading approaches from those used with more familiar literary and personal narratives.
(Kucer, as ctd. in Alberta Education, 2010b, p. 5)
Increasingly, teachers are being encouraged to help enable students to read and write across the curriculum. Although literacy is broader than reading and writing in English, these two skills—combined with skills in communications technology—continue to be foundational for lifelong learning both within and without post-secondary institutions. Because reading and writing both involve a significant amount of encoding and decoding (while speaking and listening do not), direct instruction is required for students to develop these skills; they will not simply 'pick it up.' Writing alone involves operating “simultaneously on two levels: composing (creating ideas, putting … thoughts in logical, articulate form), and transcribing (physically writing a text)” (Barr et al. 1989, ctd. in Law & Eckes, 2010, p. 157). The requirement for students to be able to read and write in such a wide variety of complex situations merits considerable explicit instruction and modeling, as well as multiple opportunities to practice and reflect.