Functional Approach model: a five-step progression taking students from BICS (oral dialogue) to CALP (written discourse)¶

Element · All elements
Evidence · 3 claims (2 for, 1 mixed) · 1 study (1 theoretical), q1 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description¶

Larsen-Pusey's Functional Approach is a teaching model that bridges the gap between the oral skills of BICS and the Cognitive/Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) needed to use the target language in content classes. It moves students from context-embedded to context-reduced situations and from cognitively undemanding to cognitively demanding tasks, through activities progressing from oral dialogue to edited scripts, reported speech, narrative writing, and dialogue reconstruction. The packet's notional-functional taxonomy and model diagram support its activities.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Goals must deal with communicative competence in all four modes of language use and be implemented across the curriculum

Constraints¶

• The packet itself states "a more detailed methodology remains to be developed" for this model

Target Learners¶

• K-12 bilingual and L2 students

Target Learning Goals¶

• moving from oral interpersonal communication to academic written discourse

Claims¶

• BICS and CALP intersect developmentally but are not identical or reducible one to the other [+W]
• The BICS-before-CALP sequence is typical for immigrant children but not universal: high L2 CALP can precede fluent L2 BICS in certain situations [~W]
• Immigrant children acquire peer-appropriate conversational fluency in English within about 2 years but require considerably longer (5-10 years) to catch up academically in English [+W]

Related Elements¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Calderon, Margarita; DiPietro, Robert J.; Larsen-Pusey, Mary Ann; Rubio, Olga. (1982). Methods and Techniques for Communicative Competence in Bilingual Education, Packet II. Series B. Teacher Edition. Evaluation, Dissemination and Assessment Center, Dallas. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED226608