Supporting Teachers to Support the Linguistically Gifted: Unveiling Characteristics and Recommended Strategies

Linguistically gifted students exhibit exceptional abilities in vocabulary acquisition, language processing and comprehension, metalinguistic awareness and multilingual proficiency. Additionally, they often demonstrate high motivation, advanced self-regulation, sophisticated metacognitive strategies and often have a keen sense of humour. However, despite gifted students having particularities that make their learning considerably different, a study which aimed to understand how secondary teachers of EFL in Portugal differentiate practice to accommodate their gifted learners demonstrated that there is little to no evidence of differentiation being carried out. If these particularities are not acknowledged in teaching, the efficacy of G&T students' learning can be hindered and lead to underachievement. This presentation explores the characteristics of linguistically gifted learners and provides practical, inclusive, and teacher-friendly strategies to foster their talents. By raising teachers’ awareness of linguistically gifted learners’ characteristics and equipping educators with evidence-based differentiation, we can create supportive learning environments that nurture and challenge gifted students.