An article written by Anaheim University TESOL graduate Okon Effiong has been published in a leading international magazine for language teachers. The article, "Tuning Learners up with 'Sweet Nothings' in the Language Classroom," offers strategies for helping students relax in class, overcome shyness, and feel comfortable with each other. It is featured in the December 2008 issue of Essential Teacher, the quarterly magazine of the TESOL association.

Mr. Effiong, 48, who graduated with his MA in TESOL from Anaheim University in 2008, based the article on his experiences teaching English at Kogakkan University in Japan and at Kantan English House, a small private language school he runs. He said: “I do things in the classroom to help my students relax sufficiently and feel comfortable with each other, enough to speak English with minimal or no inhibitions. We learn in a fun way and truly have fun in the classroom and the students do not even realize they are improving on a weekly basis, but I do. It is more like a family than a classroom.”

In particular, Mr. Effiong wants to help Japanese students overcome their shyness, and he stresses taking an unconventional approach to do so. “My mission statement is to make Japanese speak English, wherever I may be offered a chance to support their learning. If the tried and tested methods yield the same results, year in year out, why stick with them?

“I am particularly interested in finding out what learning strategies help individual learners achieve their learning goals, and how learners can be supported to discover unique, possibly inherent strategies which may not be apparent until they are triggered. My work then is to help the learners find or discover the switch that would trigger the realization or awareness of the strategy,” he said.

Mr. Effiong’s stress on an unconventional approach reflects his own unconventional life in general: born in Nigeria and speaking four Nigerian languages, he spent 34 years there before moving to England for 10 years, and finally moving to Japan four years ago. He now lives in Kyoto.

The holder of two Master’s degrees (TESOL and Botany) and a Postgraduate Diploma (IT and Management), he taught undergraduate genetics for six years at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria, served as a research visitor at the University of Reading in the UK, and taught children with autism at the Loddon School, Basingstoke, Hampshire, in England. It was TESOL though that was to become his passion in life. Appropriately, he became interested in the field, in his words, “for the love of a woman.” While in England in 2002, he met Hiromi, a Japanese woman who was visiting England and who would later become his wife. He moved to Japan to be with Hiromi and obtained a TESOL Certificate to help him find his first teaching job there.

Mr. Effiong said he enjoys TESOL for several reasons including, “the flexibility it offers whereby you can try a teaching method that works well or adapt a particular style to different teaching situations.” He added: “I am an academic ‘jack-of-all-trades’, having attempted Master's in three different fields including IT and Management, and the snow-balling effect of the knowledge from the different fields simply makes me a different sort of teacher. I am never shy to try new things. If I do and it fails, I apologize to whoever is unhappy with my effort, but if it works, then everybody is happy.”

To be eligible for more challenging teaching opportunities, Mr. Effiong wanted to earn a Master’s degree in TESOL and chose Anaheim University. He now reflects fondly on his Anaheim experience: “Apart from being taught by very good professors, the program brought out the side I hardly knew existed in Okon. The way the program is run helps you to discover yourself, and this is what I am trying to do to my students. I help them discover the hidden talents and skills which laid dormant in them as a result of learning in traditional classrooms.

“A Certificate in TESOL is a good start but I would recommend the MA TESOL program that Anaheim offers to any aspiring and practicing teachers because it makes the scales drop off your eyes and you can see beyond conventional wisdom.”?

Mr. Effiong would now like to pursue a doctoral degree in TESOL while still finding time to spend with his wife, learn new web design tools, cook, and dance to R & B and hip hop music. He had also presented at conferences in France and Japan on issues related to intellectual disabilities including Asperger Syndrome and autism. With such a varied background to draw on, he is able to provide sound advice to his fellow language teachers. He advises: “If you are a language teacher, wherever you may be, try and make a difference. If you are not given enough responsibilities to challenge you, create one. Be happy, or create happiness for yourself because life is too short.”

Is it really possible to make a profit while embracing tree-hugging ideologies? According to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott, “Being a good steward of the environment and our communities, and being an efficient and profitable business, are not mutually exclusive. In fact they are one and the same." Companies around the world are finding this to be true as students enrolled in online Sustainable Management programs through the Anaheim University Kisho Kurokawa Green Institute, are implementing strategies at the workplace that enable them to be responsible for the financial, environmental and social bottom line.

By completing such 6-week intensive online courses as “Triple Bottom Line Accountability”, “Green Marketing” and “Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics” working professionals around the world are learning about the “3 P’s” (People, Planet and Profit) while earning an 18-week Certificate, a 36-week Diploma or an 18-month MBA in Sustainable Management, referred to as the Online Green MBA.

Donald Nordeng, President of the pioneering organic certification company Ecocert S.A.’s Japanese subsidiary, shared his experience with Anaheim’s accredited Online Green MBA program by saying, “Triple Bottom Line Accountability is one of the subjects I am excited about getting to grips with. This really fits with the business and whole corporate raison d’etre, of how to increase our profit whilst at the same time adding value to the environment and standards of living within the communities we serve. The fact that Anaheim University is an online University also had added incentive for me to study. Without the bricks and mortar, need for travel, and online resources we are already cutting down on thousands of tons of carbon”.

The nationally accredited Anaheim University demonstrated its environmental responsibility by committing to become 100% paperless by 2010. In February 2009 Anaheim signed the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), promising to within two years, set a target date and interim milestones for becoming climate neutral.

Demonstrating social responsibility, Anaheim University implemented the Tuition Relief program to assist students in these uncertain economic times, covering 50% of the tuition fee for any degree-seeking student as well as any Sustainable Management Diploma or Certificate Student who enrolls by June 30th, 2009.

For the second year in a row, Anaheim University's MBA programs were ranked #1 in Japan's Nikkei Business Publications' annual rankings for the professional expertise of AU's MBA faculty. The nationally accredited California-based Anaheim University Akio Morita School of Business, named in honor of the late Sony Founder, was placed 1st in 3 major categories.

The University and Graduate School Guide, published by Japan's leading Business and Economic publisher, the Nikkei BP, looks at 78 graduate business schools that operate programs in Japan. Scoring a perfect 100% in all 3 of its categories, Anaheim University was ranked alongside Temple University Japan who outranked their rivals in the Japanese press and retained their positions at the top of the board.

The School of Business offers three MBA tracks ranging from 100% online with its Online Global and Online Green MBA (MBA in Sustainable Management) programs to the Professional MBA's blended learning format through which students in Japan combine online study with face-to-face group study sessions at the Akio Morita Learning Center, based on the Sony Founder's former estate in Tokyo, Japan. Professional MBA students also have the opportunity to take part in a short-term Advanced Project Management study program taught on the campus of Stanford University by professors in the Stanford Center for Professional Development in (Palo Alto) Stanford, California.

In addition to its esteemed faculty, Anaheim University provides its MBA students access to live seminars and webcasts with business leaders from such global companies as Nissan, Accenture, FedEx, Body Glove, British Airways, Exxon Mobil, Leo Burnett, Zappos, SAP, Entrepreneur Media, Belkin, Audi, Toshiba and Union Bank of California.

"We are very pleased that Anaheim University is continuing to be recognized as a leading business school in Asia with our Online International MBA, Professional MBA and Online Green MBA enrolling business professionals from over 40 countries worldwide. We are extremely proud of our faculty, who were ranked #1 for their academic credentials combined with business expertise, and for the leadership of the Dean of our School of Business, Dr. Andrew Honeycutt, who earned his Doctorate in Business Administration from Harvard's prestigious Business School," said AU Chief Communications Officer David Bracey