In Slovenia, language teacher study programmes still fail to provide the appropriate academic and practical input on teaching languages to gifted students. This is further supported by the fact that there are no methodologically rigorous research studies which would measure language aptitude or investigate learning and teaching languages to the gifted. Finally, the national primary school guidelines on the gifted education do not recognize language aptitude, even though the research shows that childhood is the most important period for (foreign) language development.
In accordance with the current situation, the main aim of the presentation is to show and discuss the opinions and perceived professional competence of language teachers in identifying and educating gifted students. The research findings are derived from the broader national survey on gifted education in Slovenia. The emphasis is on different psychological and curricular elements which are stressed for the relevance from the teachers’ point of view. Moreover, the research focus is oriented towards the comparison between the language and STEM teachers to find out the implications for further pre-service and in-service teacher education for teaching gifted students.