As the population of students who do not speak English as a first language increases, it will become more and more important for teachers to be able to recognize giftedness in these young people. The following information comes from a presentation by L. Warren, A. Seitz, D. Hanson, and M. Smelser, Purdue University (2001).

SOME THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT LEP/ESL STUDENTS:

• The ability to demonstrate talent is colored by students' ability to communicate in their second language.
• LEP learners are often placed in environments that are incongruent with their previous education experiences.
• Many LEP students come from economically impoverished backgrounds.
• There is a high drop-out rate for LEP/ESL students who are placed in low level classes.
• Many LEP/ESL students are victimized by overt racism and low expectations.
• Even sympathetic teachers and administrators sometimes "dumb down" curricula or track students into unchallenging classes that may be inappropriate for students' abilities.
• Concepts learned in one language usually do transfer into another.
• There is a positive association between bilingualism and cognitive development.

CHALLENGES IN IDENTIFICATION OF LEP/ESL STUDENTS:

• Untrained teachers are often unable to recognize indicators of high potential in traditional populations. This problem is compounded with language minorities.
• Teachers' judgment of talent in LEP/ESL students is sometimes clouded by prejudice and lowered expectations.
• Many LEP/ESL students are also from "low SES" families. Therefore, LEP/ESL students may have had fewer opportunities to discover, develop, and display their talents and interests.
• Traditional screening methods used for identifying gifted students are often inappropriate for LEP students. Therefore, scores for LEP/ESL students are frequently artificially low.
• Assessing verbal/linguistic talent in LEP/ESL students is especially challenging, particularly in schools without multilingual staff trained to identify talent in this area.

RECOMMENDATION FOR ACTION:

• Schools should work to develop collaborative relationships with bilingual parents and community members. Schools should also work to help ESL/LEP parents feel welcome.
• "Cross-training" in gifted education and teaching ESL is helpful for teachers involved in identifying and teaching potentially gifted LEP/ESL students.
• Identifying talents and gifts as early as possible is ideal. However, identification must be regularly repeated, particularly considering that many LEP families are part of migrant populations.
• Welcoming LEP/ESL parents into school and classrooms is important.