ESL related definitions - Additive bilingualism CUP SUO Threshold hypothesis
Additive bilingualism
The linguistic and academic benefits of additive bilingualism for individual students provide an additional reason to support students in maintaining their First language (LI) while they are acquiring English. Not only does maintenance of LI help students to communicate with parents and grandparents in their families, and increase the collective linguistic competence of the entire society, it enhances the intellectual and academic resources of individual bilingual students. At an instructional level, we should be asking how we can build on this potential advantage in the classroom by focusing students' attention on language and helping them become more adept at manipulating language in abstract academic situations.
CUP
CUP - common underlying proficiency If skills from one language transfer to learning another, then CUP skills will help.
Interdependence principle
The interdependence principle - Interdependence of first and second languages has been stated as follows (Cummins, 1981a): To the extent that instruction in Lx is effective in promoting proficiency in Lx, transfer of this proficiency to Ly will occur provided there is adequate exposure to Ly (either in school or environment) and adequate motivation to learn Ly. (p. 29)
SUP
SUP - separate underlying proficiency If skills from one language do not transfer to learning another, then they are SUP skills and will not help when learning a second language.
Threshold hypothesis
Threshold hypothesis - level of linguistic competence that must be attained in each language in order for bilinguals to avoid cognitive deficits and benefit cognitively from their bilingualism (Cummins, 1979, p. 229)
Developmental interdependence hypothesis - the level of L2 competence which a bilingual child attains is partially a function of the type of competence the child has developed in L1 at the time when intensive exposure to L2 begins (Cummins, 1979, p. 233).