Reflections on Shansi’s TEFL Training with Kim Faber

For 24 years, Kim Faber has served as the Language Pedagogy Trainer and Mentor for Oberlin Shansi. Having worked with generations of Shansi Fellows, she has helped lay the foundation for how Shansi Fellows in very different environments approach teaching, learning, and curriculum planning. Her focus on acquisition-focused language learning has helped guide our teaching fellows in creating classroom environments that are dynamic, welcoming, rigorous, and fun. We caught up with her to discuss her experience as a mentor, trainer, and treasured member of the Oberlin Shansi team.

Your orientation workshops have focused on acquisition-focused language learning over grammar-centered learning. Could you tell us more about your approach to teaching English to non-English speakers?

Thanks to years of research, we now know that in order to acquire a language, a person must A) have ample opportunity to use that language and B) to communicate in it in ways that are meaningful and engaging to them. Learning how to make this happen effectively in a classroom setting is harder than it sounds. It is a big part of the Shansi TESOL training I do. We focus on using what we call “the whole language” — speaking as naturally as possible and focusing on communication rather than “correctness.” In doing so, we can leave the smaller grammatical details for later, usually in a written context, once students can first communicate orally. In order to make this possible, I encourage new language teachers to use an eclectic approach, largely based on the principles of what’s become known as communicative language teaching. This includes coming up with tasks and projects to encourage students to use language in meaningful ways and in authentic contexts.

Shansi’s partner universities are quite different in terms of geographic location, cultural norms, and institutional histories. Furthermore, students at our partner universities often have different levels of exposure to English. How do you help prepare fellows going to different learning environments?

I encourage the Fellows to realize that, in some way, every class they’ll ever teach is multi-level. Students in any group will always have a different starting point as well as different motivations for being in class. In this way, any lesson needs to be what we call “highly differentiated,” meaning that it should appeal and be accessible to various interests and types of learners. Starting from this premise, the Fellows and I talk about how we might do this. A key concept in this process is the idea of “scaffolding,” that is, providing an on-ramp for any student who might need additional support, as well as allowing every student to be successful in what is being asked of them. Another thing we focus on is structuring the lesson in a way that first motivates the students to learn and then allows them to practice. We also discuss the importance of student-centered teaching and creating a flow in your lesson that keeps all students continuously engaged.

Teaching is hard. What are the biggest challenges you see for TEFL instructors?

Teaching any age-group anywhere in the world has its learning moments for everyone involved. However, in my experience these past 24 years working with Shansi, the rewards outweigh any challenges that might come up for both the Fellows who are teaching and their students. One big challenge is that the students and schools often don’t fully understand how language learning works or what effective teaching looks like. TEFL instructors are often asked to “teach to the test,” whether it be the TOEFL test or something else. Similarly, students will often tell the teacher they want to be taught “grammar.” What they actually mean is that they want to sound more like the teacher and native speakers in general—something which, we now know, cannot be accomplished by teaching grammar.

What have you learned from serving as Shansi's Language Pedagogy Trainer and Mentor for the past several years?

Since I began training Shansi Fellows in 2000, I have learned a lot about the incredible Shansi program and what it offers. I’ve worked with many amazing Oberlin alumni who are lucky enough to take part in one of these fellowships and engage in important exchanges of views and ideas. I’ve also worked with a number of Visiting Scholars from partner institutions in Asia, who have sought to expand their teaching pedagogies and conduct important research locally on language acquisition. Being a part of this wonderful organization has been a great privilege!

It was incredible to finally experience, in-person, the dance and music I had studied through a screen. In Sibutu and Sitangkai, I experienced pangalay and igal in settings beyond the “representational” – festival, wedding, ritual, and more. I was able to better understand how pangalay and igal are so much more than “dance,”-- how dance, music, and ritual work together to manifest a community’s intention for the future.

What is the biggest piece of advice you give to Shansi Fellows?

Get to know your students, engage with them, and trust your instincts! As long as you’re engaging with your students and their interests, you will have plenty of meaningful things to discuss in class, as well as have them read and write about, which will increase their language proficiency. If the class content is interesting and relevant to your students, and if you motivate them and allow them to be successful, they will thrive—and so will you.