There are two major aspects of language proficiency that must be acquired by second language learners. Jim Cummins has identified these as Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS), or conversational proficiency, and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP), or academic proficiency. BICS stands for Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills. These language skills are needed in social situations.It refers to the language that is necessary for day-to-day living, including conversations with friends, and informal interactions.It is context embedded. Context embedded means that the conversation is often face-to-face, and offers many cues to the listener such as facial expressions, gestures, and concrete objects of reference. It is a cognitively undemanding language, i.e. it is easy to understand, deals with everyday language and occurrences, and uses a simple language structure.Thus, it is concluded that BICS stands for Basic interpersonal communicative skills.Additional Information CALP: CALP stands for 'Cognitively Advanced Language Proficiency'. It refers to the idea of developing second language skills is essential for academic learning. CALP refers to formal academic learning. It includes listening, speaking, reading, and writing about subject area content material.It is context-reduced. Context reduced is the language of the classroom in which there are fewer non-verbal cues and the language is more abstract.It is a Cognitively demanding language that relates to abstract concepts, has specialized vocabulary, and uses a more complex language structure.