I think this stems from the distinction first made by Prof. Jim Cummins at the University of Ontario between BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) and CALP (Cognitive Academic Learning Proficiency).
Steve mentioned a month or so that he was talking to a local academic who was concerned that students were only learning social language at school which wouldn’t be good enough for use in higher education.
Link here. Maybe our Steve and these guys know each other? They’re all Canadians, after all.
