I recently had an opportunity to
visit BECC (
Bunkyo English
Commnication Center) in Hiroshima
Bunkyo Women's University. It was a tremendously comfortable space. Probably you should think of the center as a luxurious lounge, not as a school. See how it looks in pictures:
Floor 1
http://www.h-bunkyo.ac.jp/university/becc/floor1.htmlFloor 2
http://www.h-bunkyo.ac.jp/university/becc/floor2.htmlFloor 3
http://www.h-bunkyo.ac.jp/university/becc/floor3.htmlOr you may want to see videos:
A short TV program
http://www.tss-tv.co.jp/d-navi/mv/bunkyojoshi.wvxA very short TV commercial
http://www.h-bunkyo.ac.jp/university/becc/becc-cm-hp.mpgA Japanese pamphlet (
PDF format) is here:
http://www.h-bunkyo.ac.jp/university/becc/BECC-pamph2.pdfThe interior design was well-thought of (although some criticism is possible in terms of universal design) and the selection of textbooks, picture books,
manga books, DVDs and other materials was of course good. You can tell almost immediately that the center is professionally designed. It is not something a national university would build, for example, when it is
suddenly given a budget that must be spent immediately within the fiscal year.
The center is indeed a product of
Kanda University of International Studies.
http://www.kuis.ac.jp/e/index.htmlThe center was
designed by
KUIS and all the staff in the center were sent from
KUIS. Yes, a blunt way of expressing it is that
ELT in Hiroshima
Bunkyo Women's University was outsourced. Together with
KUIS,
HBWU has
commodified ELT to make the new center as a very attractive product. I'm sure many high school students are attracted to
HBWU through this
BECC.
By using words like "
commodify" or "outsource," I do not mean a cheap criticism. though. Although I'm not a total believer of market capitalism, capitalistic actions are something no one can
ignore in modern times. If I were an administrative staff of a private university that needs more competitive power, I might also be tempted to outsourcing
ELT to make a very appealing product for "consumers" of educational service. I might not even mind using the word "edutainment" for education.
However,
KUIS and
HBWU are certainly not treating their students as capricious consumers. They promote self-access study and independent learning. I never mean a shallow criticism of their policy, either.
Through self-access study, learners develop skills in self-directed and cooperative learning, which promote independent life-long learning of language. The Self-access Learning Centre encourages learners to be accountable for their own learning and take the necessary steps to self-improve.
http://www.kandagaigo.ac.jp/kuis/salc/aboutthesalc/mission.html
However, the first paragraph of "Philosophy" of Self-Access Learning Center makes me pause a bit to think about this process of
commodification of
ELT to individual customers.
Downloading music onto an iPod, buying a coffee in Starbucks, booking a vacation online, or choosing a telephone ringtone, all of these show that increasingly our world is one of individualization. No longer do we have to accept what other people choose for us, but we can tailor much of our environment to suit our needs and desires. The flexibility that comes with having freedom of choice is really important, and this is our philosophy of language learning in the SALC.
http://www.kandagaigo.ac.jp/kuis/salc/aboutthesalc/philosophy.html
Individualism is indeed one of the defining features of modernity. It is an individual who is to choose, make a decision and hold
responsibility. But just as Kant regarded the existence of others in public sphere as a highly critical condition for human beings, or as Marx clarified that without understanding the social, human beings cannot be properly understood, the modernity has not granted a blind faith to individualism. After all, you may say, now is "post-modern" not "modern." The notion of individualism is not a sacred canon at all (if only you're not a
neo-
liberalist, I mean).
As someone who is concerned with school education or as
someone who regards the
socio-cultural approach as essential for a proper understanding of learning, I'm not completely free from some anxiety about this
commodification of
ELT. I wonder whether the combination of
individualism and consumerism is a wise option in education.