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100 GARY M. JONESTcihle 8. ICompulsory and cxaminablc suhjccts in Rrunri priniarv antl sccontlarv schoolsEnglish LanguageEnglith LanguageMathematic5Mictor)ScienceGcograph:English I.anguagcMathematicsScienceGeographyI oii cr PrimoLy (age 5-8)Mala! I anguagcMathematicsGeneral StudiesIslamic Rcligious Kno\z.le.tlgcPhysical EducationArts antl HandicraftCivicsllppcr Primor) (ugc 9 I I )Malay LanguagcIslamic Religious Kno\z.lctlgePhysical EducationArts and HandicraftCivics1.o~ cr Seconduy (uge 12 I J)Malay LanguagrIslamic Kcligious KnowlcclgcHistorvEnglish I anguagcMathematicsScicncc/Art/T'echnical Subjccts(clcpcntling on stream)Although some Malay continues to be usctl in the RI-uncian system, at Primary 4 thcrcis an abrupt change, antl this occurs at a time when the pupils have only a limited proficiencyin English. Not only is the number of English-medium hours greatly increased, but theincrcasc is in some of' the most cognitivcly demanding subjects, subjccts which Cummins(1 984) would characterise as precisely those that require a well-tlcvclopcd L2 proficiency.BICS and CALPCummins (1984) has in fact distinguished bctween two sets of language skills: basicinterpersonal communication skills (BICS) and cognitive acadcmic language proficiency(CALP). He argucs that children will be unable to cope with the school curriculum unlcsstheir cognitive academic language proficicncy (CAW) is sufficiently dcvclopcd. A child'slanguage-cognitive abilitics nccd to be sufficiently ~.cll tlevclopcd to cope with the curricularprocesses of the classroom. This proficicncy could be tlevcloped in either of the tiilingualchild's languages or in both simultaneously. In Cummins's (1984: 143) opinion, CALPinvolvcs some universal undcrlying proficicncy which is shared across languages. Onceacquired in one language it can tic transferred to any other language. Thus, proticicncy ofthis sort acquired in Malay could hc transferred to English-medium classes antl vice versa.Cummins develops thc concept of RICS antl CALI' in the four quadrant model whichis reproduccd as Figure 8.1 .