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CU scholar Rai Farrelly is partnering with English language teachers in Ukraine this semester through a U.S. Department of State program

In some of Rai Farrelly’s first meetings with her new colleagues, they warned her that the air raid sirens might go off while she’s observing their classes.

If that happens, she recalls them telling her, they’ll run down to the bunker in the basement and hope that a nationwide effort to increase internet capacity in subterranean locations has reached their schools and universities. And then they’ll pick up where they left off, because students are still eager to learn, and her colleagues’ job is to teach them.

Farrelly, a teaching associate professor and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) director in the �������� Department of Linguistics, is virtually partnering with educators in Ukraine this semester through the .

Rai Farrelly, a teaching associate professor and TESOL director in the CU Boulder Department of Linguistics, is virtually partnering with educators in Ukraine this semester through the U.S. Department of State English Language Specialist Program.

The Ukrainian educators are part of the State Department’s and work with either teenagers in after-school programs or undergraduate students training to be teachers in any subject because “Ukraine has a plan to start teaching all their content in English coming up very soon,” Farrelly explains.

In her role as an (ELS), Farrelly will observe classes and partner with teachers in Ukraine on strategies and methods for teaching large, mixed-level English classes. Farrelly’s TESOL students at CU Boulder also will partner with English language students in Ukraine via virtual conversation sessions.

“Our realities are worlds apart,” Farrelly says, “yet we'll be connected online and building community together.”

Educational collaboration

Farrelly, whose teaching experience has taken her around the world—from Armenia to Tanzania, where she co-founded to help support students from rural areas who are pursuing post-secondary education—qualified as a State Department ELS several years ago.

To qualify as an ELS, an educator must have a master’s or PhD in TESOL or applied linguistics and the ability to partner with teachers and students around the world either in person or virtually. The program, which is organized through U.S. embassies and regional language officers around the world, focuses on “delivering and maintaining quality English language programs overseas and promoting mutual understanding between the U.S. and other countries.”

During the COVID pandemic, Farrelly accepted virtual ELS positions in South Korea and then Panama. Last semester, her pedagogical grammar class at CU taught English through a virtual cross-cultural exchange with learners at a language school in Arequipa, Peru.

“I have a really nice relationship with colleagues at this school, and they were like, ‘Rai, send your teachers,’” Farrelly says. “Because of that, we have had three CU students teach there, so this program really opens up doors, and I’m going to be working with them again this semester.”

The teachers in Ukraine with whom Farrelly is collaborating this semester have mentioned many of the challenges that English language teachers worldwide face: how to scaffold instruction in classes that contain everything from absolute beginners to intermediate-level speakers; when and how to correct pronunciation and grammar; how to group students during oral exercises; how to invite participation in a way that helps students feel excited to speak.

To help her support the teachers in Ukraine, Farrelly is even arranging a Zoom session with the 14-year-old daughters of three of her friends “so I can do a playful interview on the gender dynamics in class and what their teachers do in a U.S. class to make it comfortable for them,” she says. “That’s one of the concerns that my colleagues in Ukraine have expressed, that 14-year-old boys won’t work with girls and how can they get them to work in groups.”

Seeing people as people

Farrelly says her experiences working with English-teaching colleagues around the world—including in Indonesia and Russia—have taught her the vital importance of a “community of practice and what it means to work closely with teachers who ‘speak your language,’” she says.

One of the biggest and most pervasive challenges in the TESOL field is the incorrect notion that anybody who speaks English can teach it. “Decades ago, anyone could step off a plane, and if you looked like me and talked like me, you could get a job,” Farrelly says. “Meanwhile, teachers in those countries who go through pedagogical training, who get degrees in teaching English, weren’t getting jobs.

“Even now, there are a lot of short TEFL or TESOL certificates you can get online. Meanwhile, I’m the director of the TESOL program at CU, and my students are taking five or six courses with me to earn a TESOL certificate. There’s a depth and breadth of proper preparation that goes beyond how to teach a language. It’s about understanding individual differences, personalities, motivations, culture, how your (first language) influences acquisition, classroom management, curriculum design. There’s so much that goes into it that’s beyond simply speaking English.”

In her ELS role, Farrelly says a significant focus is teacher mentoring and teacher development: “I’m such a huge fan of collaboration, especially among teachers,” she says. “So much of what I’ve done is grounded in working with teachers, and I never want teachers to see me as this expert outsider who’s coming in and telling them what to do. I just like approaching teacher development collaboratively and creating bonds with people. I love the relationships you form with other teachers—those connection moments where you’re like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I’m dealing with that same issue!’ And the next thing you know, ideas start forming.”

The fact that Ukraine is a country at war and that geopolitics add a complicated layer to Farrelly’s collaboration with teachers there—in fact, she doesn’t mention her previous experience with teachers and students in Vladimir, Russia—underscores the importance of global partnerships, she says.

“It helps you see people as people and humanizes everyone,” she says. “That’s one of the main aims of State Department programs. It’s access for learners and mentoring for professionals, but it’s about bridging those gaps and promoting cross-cultural understanding. It doesn’t matter where you’re from, at the end of day we can all find so many commonalities.”

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