Gifted Learners in an Inclusive Language Class: A Special Demand on the Teacher’s Expertise

Abstract

The claim that anybody can teach or that everybody is a teacher is really erroneous. Result-oriented teaching is, however, too lofty for the reach of an untrained person. Language teaching is not an exception to this rule. More demanding is a situation in which the teacher has gifted learners in the class. Such a language teacher in a class with average, below average, above average, as well as gifted and talented learners needs to keep abreast of the latest discoveries in the pedagogy of language teaching and learning as well as the related fields of learning psychology, special education and others. An attempt is made in this paper to identify giftedness in language learning and the efforts that a teacher of gifted learners in the midst of other students of varying ability levels needs to make.