Common Terms and Acronyms

• BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills or Social Conversation)
• CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency or Academic, Content Vocabulary)
• EFL (English as a Foreign Language)
• ELDA (English Language Development Assessment)
• ENL (English as a New Language)
• ELL (English Language Learner)

• ESL (English as a Second Language)
• ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) This acronym reflects that English maybe the third or fourth language students may be learning.
• HLS (Home Language Survey) Federal Mandate: All students enrolled must fill out a home language survey.
• ILAP (Individualized Language Acquisition Plan) All directly served students will have an ILAP based upon their instructional needs.
• LEP (Limited English Proficient)
• NES/NEP (Non-English Speaker, Non-English Proficient, i.e. beginner, early production level)
• ML (Multilingual Learner) This is the term that South Carolina has adopted for our ESOL Students
• WIDA (World Class Instructional Design and Assessment)