Foreign language for the gifted: Extending affective dimensions

Garfinkel, Alan; Allen, Linda Quinn; Neuharth‐Prtichett, Stacy

doi:10.1080/02783199309553514

Cited by 5 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Studies examining foreign language aptitudes of students who are intellectually gifted are scarce. In three articles related to this topic, the researchers have primarily focused on psychological and personality dimensions or affective dimensions (Garfinkel, Allen, & Neuharth-Pritchett, 1993;Sustekova, 1984bSustekova, , 1987, not on relationships between cognitive aptitude and success in learning a foreign language.…”

Section: Background General and Specific Abilities For Learning A Secmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foreign Language Learning Aptitudes, Attitudes, Attributions, and Achievement of Postsecondary Students Identified as Gifted

Bain

McCallum

Bell

et al. 2010

Journal of Advanced Academics

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We investigated the aptitudes, attitudes, attributions, and achievement of undergraduates identified as gifted who were taking a beginning Spanish course, and compared these characteristics to undergraduates in the same cohort group who had not been identified as gifted. There were differences in the aptitudes, attitudes, and achievement of post-secondary introductory Spanish students who had been identified as gifted and their nongifted peers. Gifted students had higher scores than nongifted students on the aptitude scale. The gifted group displayed a more positive attitude toward learning a foreign language than the nongifted group. Based on their performances on the attribution scale, the students identified as gifted and their nongifted peers did not differ in their attributions for ability, effort, teacher impact (context), or chance as explanations for their success in foreign language learning. Our findings seem to lead to suggestions for foreign language instructors to increase their focus on developing positive attitudes in all students, and on developing greater knowledge about native language skills (in this case, English) to enhance foreign language learning. However, research investigating the efficacy of such instruction is notably lacking. Therefore, studies investigating both of these areas would be welcome.

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Section: Background General and Specific Abilities For Learning A Secmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foreign Language Learning Aptitudes, Attitudes, Attributions, and Achievement of Postsecondary Students Identified as Gifted

Bain

McCallum

Bell

et al. 2010

Journal of Advanced Academics

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“…In fact, some scholars believe that there are many characteristics of general intelligence that come into play when linguistic giftedness is considered. According to Garfinkel and Prentice (1985), the most important of these characteristics are the ability to deal with large amounts of information and extraordinary retentiveness, advanced comprehension, high levels of language development and verbal ability, exceptional information processing qualities, flexible and rapid thought processes, abstract thinking, originality, and persistently goal-oriented behavior. In addition, specific sets of characteristics for students particularly talented in the acquisition of a foreign language have been proposed (Bartz, 1982).…”

Section: Gifted Students and Foreign Language (Fl) Instructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The literature on foreign language education for high-ability students reports different ways in which customizing of the foreign language program can take place. In the first place, many authors consider an earlier start for gifted and talented students as an appropriate approach (Allen, 1992;Garfinkel & Prentice, 1985;Long, 1990;VanTassel-Baska, 1987). In line with educational practices in Europe, mastery of two foreign languages by high school graduation has been advocated (VanTassel-Baska).…”

Section: Gifted Students and Foreign Language (Fl) Instructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In line with educational practices in Europe, mastery of two foreign languages by high school graduation has been advocated (VanTassel-Baska). Faster pace, independent study, and condensed offerings are other possibilities that have been tried (Bartz, 1982;Carlson, 1981;Garfinkel & Prentice;Wielkoszewski, 1992).…”

Section: Gifted Students and Foreign Language (Fl) Instructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, none of the choices mentioned above involves qualitative differences in the curriculum, which should be the aim of a program for high-ability students. Such qualitative differences should strive to match the characteristics of academically talented learners more closely, capitalizing above all on their higher order thinking skills, creativity, originality, and cognitive maturity, which enable them to work at the highest levels of Bloom's taxonomy: synthesis and evaluation (Allen, 1992;Garfinkel & Prentice, 1985). Challenging programs and activities that cater to these needs exist and have been described in the literature (Allen;Bartz, 1982;Garfinkel, Allen, & Neuhart-Prtichett, 1993;Garfinkel & Prentice;Pouwels, 1988).…”

Section: Gifted Students and Foreign Language (Fl) Instructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The Impact of a Language Learning Task on Instructional Outcomes in Two Student Populations: High-Ability and Average-Ability Students

Nikolova¹,

Taylor²

2003

Journal of Secondary Gifted Education

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This article examines the use of two different Spanish language learning tasks for students identified as high ability and average ability. Students were asked to read a short passage in Spanish on a computer screen and either use the glosses already provided for certain words to aid in comprehension (the control group) or create glosses for the same target words using a Spanish-English dictionary and annotation software (the experimental group). Next, they were asked to write a synopsis of the story in their own words in English and were also given an unannounced vocabulary recall test. They were retested 1 month later for vocabulary recall. High-ability students performed significantly better with the experimental task than with the control task on the vocabulary test, while average-ability learners showed no difference for recall between the two tasks. For reading comprehension, the complex nature of the experimental task seems to have created difficulties for average-ability learners, who scored substantially lower than the other groupings. Experimental average-ability students recalled significantly fewer words on the delayed recall test, as well, again suggesting a detrimental effect of the task on word retention for this group.

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Talent Development During the High School Years

Feldhusen

1995

Gifted Education International

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The author stresses the need for adequate career guidance for gifted youth to clarify their life goals. He also outlines the organisational strategies that can be used to provide extracurricular activities for youngsters who need greater challenge.The high school years are times of rapid intellectual and emotional development for gifted students and times of rapid social change (Robinson and Noble, 1991). Suddenly the world is circumscribed chiefly by daily contact with other students, and time interacting with adults is minimised. This is unfortunate for gifted students because we know that they need a lot of time talking and working with adults if their talent is to develop and flourish. We also know that the development of their gifts is even enhanced further if they can talk and work with adults who have achieved some degree of fame or excellence in the student's talent area (Zorman, 1993).If there is limited opportunity to interact with high achieving adults our next best hopes are for chances to work with other very bright, gifted or talented students or with other students who are both talented and somewhat older. The latter condition means that gifted students profit from being challenged by peers who are older and strong in intellectual capacity (Feldhusen, 1991).To accomplish this opportunity to work with older and more challenging peers, gifted adolescents should move through high school more rapidly than normal (Benbow, 1991). Thus, they may get into advanced courses a year or two early, enter high school early by condensing junior high or middle school, or take summer or Saturday courses. Several states and school districts also encourage gifted students to take college courses while in high school and earn both college and high school credit simultaneously (Feldhusen and Cobb, 1989). Such arrangements for gifted youth help them avoid the boredom and demotivation which often afflicts them in junior high and high school (Feldhusen and Kroll, 1991), and they can still participate actively in sports and extracurricular activities. Counselling Gifted youth need special counselling in middle and high school to help them 1) develop better understanding of their own talents and abilities 2) Clarify their career goals and define suitably high level occupational goals 3) Plan appropriate educational routes to their goals 4) Deal with personal-social challenges of being gifted. It seems clear that many gifted youth do not get a clear understanding of their own special talents and abilities, and thus they cannot plan for suitably high level, creative or challenging careers. Counsellors can assist the gifted in small groups and individually to interpret test results and performance information to recognise the full extent of their emerging abilities (Silverman, 1993).Gifted youth especially need exposure to careers at a level commensurate with their talent potential since much career education information focuses only on middle range careers. The appropriate level careers involve creative activity and intellectu...

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Foreign language for the gifted: Extending affective dimensions

Cited by 5 publications

References 7 publications

Foreign Language Learning Aptitudes, Attitudes, Attributions, and Achievement of Postsecondary Students Identified as Gifted

Foreign Language Learning Aptitudes, Attitudes, Attributions, and Achievement of Postsecondary Students Identified as Gifted

The Impact of a Language Learning Task on Instructional Outcomes in Two Student Populations: High-Ability and Average-Ability Students

Talent Development During the High School Years

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