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Vol.8 : Dr. David Nunan (Anaheim University)
April 18, 2007
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TESOL：教育学英語教授法 (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Language)
earn as they learn：稼ぎながら勉強をする
pedagogical：教育的な
contest：検証する
purely academic：純粋に学究的な
bricks-and-mortar：従来式の
euphoric：幸福感に溢れた
（ D: David, R: Russell ）
| R : |
I'm here with David Nunan, Dr. David Nunan who is the President of Anaheim University. We are here at the Anaheim University branch in Tokyo. Could you describe for me a little bit about what Anaheim University is and what its mission is? |
| D : |
Sure. The mission is to take graduate education to professionals who are working around the world in various fields. I started the TESOL program in the mid 90s and then we added an MBA program and next year we are about to add a school of film and television, which is going to be interesting.
But the whole idea is that rather than people having to go, say, back to the UK or back to the United States or Canada or Australia to do graduate study, they can stay in place, they can continue to work in places such as Japan, and at the same time earn their master's degree.
And that has two advantages. One of them of course is that they are able to continue to earn as they learn without having to give up full-time employment. But the other big advantage from a pedagogical perspective is that they can actually contest the ideas that they are getting through the programs that they are studying in the everyday work world.
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| R : |
Right, so it is not purely academic. They can try and put some of these things into practice and see what works.
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| D : |
Yes and that's been one of the exciting things for me that, you know, I will run an online seminar for an hour on a Saturday morning and then on Monday I will get an email from one of the participants saying "Well, you know, I tried out some of the ideas that we discussed on Saturday morning and they were great."
And I would suggest the following adjustments, you know, "...this worked really well, this didn't work so well." I think that's a tremendous advantage.
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| R : |
So the online nature of Anaheim is quite unique in many ways. |
| D : |
Well, it certainly was when we started. I mean, nobody else was doing it in those days and everybody these days is playing catch-up of course. So I mean even bricks-and-mortar institutions all have their current web components.
But we were the first and I can remember way, way back in the mid 90s on a Saturday afternoon at about this time logging on and suddenly finding students appearing on my screen and I felt "Wow, it is just so exciting..." I was euphoric.
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| R : |
Has it become a lot easier to do with broadband and different technologies becoming more widely adopted? |
| R : |
With broadband and different technologies becoming more widely adopted? |
| D : |
In those days, it was dialup. People, including myself, were constantly being kicked out of the classrooms. I would be on the road and having to have classes at 2'o'clock in the morning from Switzerland or wherever I was, but it was exciting and it was fun.
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| R : |
Is there a video conference aspect to some of your lessons or is it purely email and chat based? |
| D : |
It's mainly text chat. We have been trialing video and that's going to come.
But one of the problems that we are trying to deal with is the fact that a lot of the people that we are trying to reach, teaching in places such as Northern Thailand, or in the Philippines, or in places that are not wired.
And so therefore if we go hi-tech, we are going to cut out the very people that we are trying to provide the service for.
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serendipitous：予期せず
nationalities：国籍
relentlessly rote learners：過酷な暗記学習者
reluctant：気乗りのしない
interaction：対話
（ D: David, R: Russell ）
| R : |
Now, Japan seems to be a big market for you. I noticed for one thing that on your website you have it in English and in Japanese and also your school of business is the Akia Morita School of Business, and your forthcoming school of film is the Akira Kurosawa School of Film. |
| D : |
The Akira Kurosawa Film School, yeah. |
| R : |
Tell us about the market in Japan for this kind of program. |
| D : |
Well, the school was born here, and we have always had a very strong connection with Japan and we always felt very, very comfortable here. In Japan we have had tremendous financial support from some of the top business creative education leaders in Japan. On our board we have got people like Kurokawa, the architect who I believe is threatening to run for Mayor of Tokyo at the moment.
It's just been something that was serendipitous, you know, it wasn't necessarily planned that we were going to launch this massive kind of initiative in Japan, but that's just the way it evolved, and it's been a very good one.
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| R : |
How would you describe the sort of breakdown of students that you have at Anaheim in terms of nationalities and languages? |
| D : |
Well, the majority are, I guess, North Americans, but the second largest group would be Japanese first language speakers, who are living and working in Japan, although not exclusively.
And that's been an interesting experience as well because we have developed very close friendships with a lot of those students and I have always thought that a lot that was said about Asian learners, you know, that they are relentlessly rote learners and are reluctant and so on is inaccurate.
One of the nice things - well, one of the interesting things about online learning is that every single interaction that a student has through the site is captured, and so you can go and you can look at the data.
It's very interesting to look at, for example, the number of interactions that, say, not just Japanese first language speakers, we have got people from China, we have got Thais, we have even got somebody from Burma. And so when you look at the data the myths would suggest that all of the native speakers of English would be high in number of interactions, and the Asian learners would be low, and that is simply not the case.
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| R : |
Is that something to do with the online nature of the interaction, perhaps a lack of sort of - you know, it is not personal face-to-face, and so they feel freer to interact. Or is it, as you say, maybe it's just a myth? |
| D : |
I don't know, I really don't know. Some years ago when I was doing some action research at University of Hong Kong, I had my students - these were undergraduates. I had them, this kind of supports the notion that the distancing factor thats made available through technology somehow frees up students who mights be more reticent. I got my students on every Friday afternoon and the last 20 minutes of class would be devoted to them keeping journals.
And then about 6-7 years ago, I said to them "Look, we've all got email accounts, instead of I am going to let you go 20 minutes early from class. Rather than writing the journals longhand, I want you to go off to the computing center. And send it to me as an email.
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| D : |
It was remarkable. I mean, the level of detail, the honesty with their written journals. When I was standing in front of a class, it tended to be fairly "Oh yes, this is the wonderful class, Professor Nunan, you are so wise. Thank you so much." But once they had the distancing effect of technology, they were much more honest in their reactions and they were much more critical of what was going on in class.
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| R : |
Fascinating. Now, in terms of Japan again because we are most interested in Japan, how do you see the market for distance learning online, higher education institutions like yourself developing, and what would you like—how would you like to see it develop? |
| D : |
Well, I would like to see an institution, I would hope it was Anaheim, emerging as the kind of Harvard of online education. But at the moment I think the tendency for many learners, and also professors, is to think of it as a bit of a sideline, you know, that the professors have their day jobs and teaching online is a bit of a sideline.
But one of the things that we are really trying to pursue at Anaheim is the notion that we are a serious educational institution and that we provide the same care and concern to students online as we would provide to students in a face-to-face mode. And so, in ten years time, I would like to see us as being touted as the Harvard of online education.
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| R : |
Are you a reader of the Nikkei weekly? |
| D : |
Yes, indeed yes. But I read it every week. I am familiar with it indeed. Yes, and it provides a great service.
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 Belinda Hobbs / Managing Director
Harlequin K.K. 
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