If you’ve worked with multilingual learners or English language learners long enough you’ve probably seen the same pattern over and over again. Students arrive with little to no English and begin growing quickly. Within a year or two many become socially fluent. They joke with friends participate in class and navigate conversations comfortably. Then something happens: growth slows down.

Not because students stop learning entirely but because the jump from conversational English to academic English is much steeper than many schools realize.

This is the gap between BICS and CALP. BICS refers to conversational fluency while CALP refers to the academic language students need to succeed with reading writing abstract thinking and content-area learning. And honestly this is where the plateau happens all too often.

Near the beginning of this article I would include a chart that shows rapid early language growth followed by a flattening curve after intermediate proficiency. I think that visual immediately connects with what many teachers see every day. Students grow quickly at first socially but much more slowly academically. Another good chart would compare conversational fluency growth with academic language growth over time because those lines often separate dramatically after the beginner stages.

Here are a few things that actually help students continue growing academically after conversational English develops.

1. Increase reading volume English Language Learners can actually interact with

Academic language develops through repeated interaction with complex ideas and vocabulary over time. The problem is that many grade-level texts are simply too linguistically dense for students to meaningfully engage with independently. That’s why adapted text matters so much when it’s done correctly.

The goal is not watering content down. The goal is making complex ideas more accessible while preserving the thinking inside the text. Students still need exposure to academic concepts and challenging ideas even if the language itself needs support.

We wrote more about this recently here.

Additionally, reading logs and vocabulary trackers are VASTLY helpful.

2. Use translanguaging intentionally

Translanguaging has become one of the biggest conversations in multilingual education over the past few years but I think many schools still struggle with what it should actually look like in practice. Too often it becomes either complete separation from the student’s first language or complete dependence on it.

Neither approach really captures the point.

Students bring an entire linguistic system with them into the classroom. Their first language can help them process ideas connect prior knowledge clarify meaning and engage with complex academic concepts at a deeper level. That matters because students cannot build strong academic language on top of weak conceptual understanding.

At the same time translanguaging should still move students back into meaningful interaction with English. Students ultimately need opportunities to discuss ideas in English read increasingly complex English texts and communicate academic thinking independently over time.

The goal is not simply helping students finish work for the day. The goal is helping students expand both knowledge and academic language simultaneously.

A strong commentary from the Center for Applied Linguistics discusses this tension well:

“Translanguaging: Theory Concept Practice Stance…or All of the Above?”

3. Gradually phase out “safe” language work

A lot of classroom supports are helpful early on. Sentence stems guided responses translation tools and highly scaffolded activities can lower anxiety and help students begin participating in academic tasks. The problem is when those supports never begin to fade.

Over time some students become extremely good at completing work without producing much independent language at all. They learn how to navigate assignments safely but not necessarily how to communicate complex thinking on their own.

Eventually students need opportunities to explain ideas, independently summarize information in their own words, and defend opinions and work through moments where language feels difficult. That productive struggle is deeply important.

The goal of scaffolding should not be permanent support. The goal should be gradually building enough confidence and language ability that students can operate more independently over time. That transition is often what helps students move from the colloquial to the academic.

4. Don’t stop language development once students “sound fluent”

This is where the plateau happens all too often. Once students become socially fluent schools often assume they no longer need intensive language support. But conversational fluency and academic fluency are different. A student can sound highly proficient socially while still struggling with:

• academic vocabulary

• complex reading

• abstract thinking

• organized writing

That’s why so many long-term English learners end up stuck in the middle for years. The systems that helped them grow early on slowly disappear once they can communicate conversationally.

Students still need consistent opportunities to interact with academic language read challenging text discuss complex ideas and write independently over time. Conversational fluency should be viewed as a major milestone but not the finish line.

5. Make growth visible

One reason students stop progressing is because growth becomes harder to see after the beginner stages. When students first learn English improvement feels obvious. Later on progress becomes slower and more gradual and many students stop recognizing that growth is still happening.

(If you would like levels 4 and 5, just drop me an email, Kyle@airlanguage.io)

That’s why visible systems matter. Reading logs, vocabulary tracking, reflection, and goal-setting all help students see progress over time. They create momentum and consistency which are often the real drivers behind academic language growth. While so much of

The students who continue developing academic language are usually the students who continue interacting with increasingly complex language over long periods of time.

A big reason we created Ace the Next Level was to help make that growth more visible and more consistent for multilingual learners. The notebook gives students a structured place to track reading vocabulary goals and reflection over time because academic language development rarely happens through isolated activities. It usually happens through sustained interaction with language day after day.