earticle

영어

Since the Gifted Education Promotion Law was proclaimed in 2001, gifted education has become a catchword among educators and school practitioners. Accordingly, math and science have been selected as two core curricula areas for gifted education. Compared to these core areas, language—especially English—fails to be valued as much. I attribute this to the following two facts. First, the government views verbal giftedness as less contributing to the country’s technological development than the two other areas. Second, it is also attributable to the general belief of educators and school practitioners that language is rarely endemic to giftedness. With respect to institutions for the gifted, there are three representative institutions for gifted education: gifted schools, gifted centers, and gifted classes. Verbally gifted education is, however, offered at the latter two types of institutions. This paper argues that verbally gifted education should be offered mainly in gifted classes for the following two reasons. First, it might be easier to implement regular and continuous language instruction in school classes, enabling more effective language acquisition. Second, offering regular gifted classes during school hours ensures that identified gifted students take only those classes, not both ordinary and gifted ones, consequently challenging the gifted's interest and level of ability.