One of the current authors visited Sweden twice in 2009 and 2010 and observed some
English classes at compulsory primary schools (ages 7 to 16) in and around Stockholm. In
all of the classes, he was very much impressed with the high level of communicative
English competence shown by the pupils and students, both in their classroom
communication with their teachers and peers (CALP: Cognitive Academic Language
Proficiency) as well as in their spontaneous conversations with him during their breaks
(BICS: Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills) (Cummins, 2008). The author was
particularly impressed with the fluency of the 7th, 8th and 9th graders; their listening and
speaking appeared to be much more advanced than the average Japanese university
student.