Inclusive Language Teaching to Highly Able Students: Research, Strategies and Practical Activities

This book focuses on the characteristics of language acquisition observed in highly able students and links them to the most effective language activities to be used.The aim of the book is to provide an efficient tool for language teachers to successfully include gifted students in the language classroom and avoid underachievement, which they are frequently exposed to. The book provides a description of the concept of giftedness through examples and studies based on the latest neurological findings. It presents practical lesson plans for teaching languages to gifted students, which have been tested in different language classrooms. The different cultural and geographical settings in which the lessons have been tested (i.e. in Albania, Italy, Ireland, Malta, Finland, and the USA) provide an international value to the collected data. The book is not only useful to language teachers of highly able students but also for all teachers, as it provides a clear description of the key aspects in inclusive language teaching and learning.

Alberta Novellohas a PhD in Linguistics from Ca’ Foscari University in Venice and is an associate professor of Educational Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies at the University of Padova in Padua, Italy. She is a member on various scientific boards that specifically examine language education in Italy. She is co-director of CESLE (Centro Studi sulla Linguistica Educativa) and part of the editorial boards of various language journals and a book series. Her main research interests include giftedness, language assessment, and early bilingualism.