Is There Such a Thing as a Talent or Gift for English?

When Ana and Marian Popescu moved from Cluj-Napoca to Manchester with their six-year-old daughter, Ioana, English served as a shared challenge. Marian knew enough to handle basic conversations at work. Ana could read simple messages but avoided speaking whenever possible. Ioana had learned colors, animals and a handful of classroom phrases.

Four years later, English is no longer a problem for the family. And now, they have a clear expert: Ioana.

“She corrects us all the time,” Ana says. “Sometimes she laughs because we put the stress in the wrong place. I tell her: you had a playground full of English teachers. I had one lesson per week in Romania.”

Ioana now sounds like a child born and raised in the UK. She follows lessons without needing translation, switches between Romanian and English depending on who she is talking to, and sometimes remembers the English word before the Romanian one. Her parents understand much more English than when they arrived, but both still have clear Romanian accents.

“I use English every day,” Marian says. “But at work, I have many of the same conversations over and over. Ioana has to talk about science, friendships, homework, football, and everything else. Her English improves in all areas. Mine only grows where I need it.”

Ioana’s journey might look like pure talent, and to find out what “talent” looks like from the classroom, Novakid asked 133 English teachers how they recognize progress in a survey like never before.

But the questionnaire did not ask teachers to identify gifted language learners. Instead, it asked how they recognize progress and what children can realistically achieve in a short period. Teachers repeatedly pointed to changes such as greater confidence, independent sentences, better recall and a motivation to continue speaking despite mistakes.

So, is Ioana talented, or has her childhood given her something her parents cannot recreate?

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Living in English does not automatically make you fluent

Simply moving to an English-speaking country is clearly not enough.

In 2024, 47% of the 49.8 million immigrants aged five and older living in the United States reported speaking English less than “very well”. That amounts to approximately 23.5 million people, according to the Migration Policy Institute. 

The contrast is even more striking within the Hispanic population. A Pew Research Center analysis of 2021 census data found that 91% of US-born Hispanics were proficient in English, compared with only 38% of foreign-born Hispanics.

Age is another important factor. US Census Bureau data from 2018 to 2022 showed that among people who spoke Spanish at home, 79.8% of those aged 5 to 17 spoke English ‘very well.’ This dropped to 58.3% for adults aged 18 to 64, and to 41.6% for people aged 65 and older. This pattern was also seen in other language groups: younger people were generally more likely to say they spoke English very well.

But these numbers do not prove that children are more talented. The census question is based on self-reported ability and does not test vocabulary, grammar, or pronunciation. However, it does show something important: living around English is not the same as learning English.

An adult might live in London, New York, or Sydney but work with people who speak their first language, watch TV from home, and use English mostly for routine conversations. A child, on the other hand, goes to school in English, plays in English, and argues in English.

Parents and children may share the same home, but they do not always share the same experience with English.

Does the young brain have a secret advantage?

This is where the idea of talent gets more interesting, because age does matter, but not in a simple way where children are good and adults are bad.

In a major study published in 2018, researchers Joshua Hartshorne, Joshua Tenenbaum and Steven Pinker analyzed data from about 670,000 participants. They found that the capacity to learn English grammar remained strong until late adolescence and then declined. However, people who hoped to reach native-like grammatical mastery generally needed to begin by around age ten, partly because successful language learning takes many years. 

Pronunciation is a different challenge. Young children are still learning the sound patterns they use to hear language. With enough interaction, they can become very sensitive to English sounds, rhythm, and intonation. Adults already have a strong sound system from their first language. New English sounds are passed through these typical patterns, which helps explain why someone can have an accent even if they have a large vocabulary and excellent grammar.

Adults also have advantages that children do not. They can understand grammar explanations, compare languages on purpose, and use organized study methods. A motivated adult might learn much faster than a child at first. What becomes harder is not learning English itself, but sounding just like someone who has spoken it since childhood.

What are we actually calling “gifted and talented”?

Part of the confusion lies in the talent definition we use. In everyday conversation, talent often means an ability that seems unusually easy or natural. The meaning of talented in English suggests someone has a special skill for something. Neither meaning tells us if that ability was inherited, developed, or practiced for thousands of hours.

For example, research with French-speaking children in an intensive English program found links between phonological memory and learning grammar in a second language. Phonological memory is the ability to remember and work with sequences of speech sounds. This is useful when a learner needs to remember a new word long enough to repeat it and eventually store it. 

Language-learning outcomes are shaped by aptitude, memory, motivation, previous language experience, anxiety, teaching quality and opportunities to use the language. Confidence can make ability visible, so a child who speaks up may seem more talented than one who’s just as capable but more reserved.

This distinction also matters when parents ask what does it mean to be gifted and talented in school. Giftedness is a larger and more complex idea than just learning English quickly. The answer to what a gifted and talented student is not simply about having the best pronunciation in class. A fast language learner might have a special skill without meeting the criteria for giftedness. At the same time, a gifted child could struggle with English because of limited exposure, anxiety, or an unsuitable learning environment.

What do teachers actually see in gifted children?

The Novakid survey approached the mystery from the classroom rather than the laboratory. It did not ask teachers to diagnose talent, so it cannot establish whether a gift for English exists. Instead, it asked how they notice that a child is progressing and whether fluency is achieved in only three months.

Their answers repeatedly returned to visible changes. A child becomes more willing to speak, answers with greater confidence, remembers material from previous lessons, forms complete sentences, uses words in new contexts and begins to self-correct. Several teachers described progress as the moment a learner stops relying entirely on rehearsed answers and starts using English to articulate personal ideas.

When discussing three-month results, teachers commonly distinguished between beginning to communicate and becoming fluent. A child may build confidence, acquire a foundation and start speaking simple English in that time. Fluency usually requires longer.

The same principle applies to teaching gifted students. A child who advances quickly does not necessarily need twice as many identical exercises. Efficient methods for teaching gifted and talented students may include richer questions, more complex stories, creative projects and opportunities to use English in less predictable situations. These approaches can also benefit children who have never been labeled gifted.

In fact, teaching gifted students can show us something useful for everyone: speed is only one way to measure progress. Thoughtfulness, persistence, curiosity, and the courage to keep talking after making a mistake are important too. The best strategies for teaching gifted and talented students should help them learn more deeply, not make ‘gifted’ a label they feel they must always live up to.

Want to see how children learn through English interaction? Watch our video about building an immersive learning environment:

Talent definition may change the speed, not the destination

So, what is gifted and talented when we talk about children learning English? And what does it mean to be gifted and talented rather than simply experienced, confident or highly motivated? 

There is no single classroom behavior that answers those questions. Anyone wondering what is a gifted and talented student should be careful not to mistake initial exposure or fearless communication for a complete assessment of a child’s potential.

A useful talent definition must leave room for both natural differences and acquired abilities. Likewise, the meaning of talented in English should not mean that everyone else is untalented.

The child who translates for her parents may have natural aptitude, but she’s also spent every school day immersed in English for kids while her parents built a new life.

Talent may influence how quickly someone learns English, but it is neither a requirement for fluency nor a reliable limit on how far a learner can go.

Ready to help your child discover their own way of learning English? Book a trial lesson and let them practice with a teacher who adapts the lesson to their level, pace and interests.

​Sources:

Migration Policy Institute

English proficiency of Hispanic population in the U.S. (2021)

A critical period for second language acquisition: Evidence from 2/3 million English speakers – Joshua K Hartshorne, Joshua B Tenenbaum, Steven Pinker (2018)

Phonological memory and children’s second language grammar learning – Leif M. French and Irena O’Brien (2008)

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July 30, 2026