Conference Review
The Sixth Annual Nakasendo
Conference
Jonathan David Brown
Toyo University
Ivan Botev
Toyo University
The 2013 Nakasendo Conference was held on July 7, 2013 at Toyo University’s
Hakusan campus located in Tokyo’s Bunkyo district. Established in 2008,
Nakasendo is an ever-evolving, multi-organizational English conference thatprovides opportunities for English-language teachers in Japan to connect with
one another, share ideas, and develop professionally through annual conferences
based on mutual support and collaboration. In 2013’s conference, about 30
presenters shared their thoughts and experience on a variety of topics in theEnglish as a Foreign Language (EFL) field from the theoretical to the morepractical.
The conference began with a casual and warm welcome from the conference’scoordinator followed by a 50-minute poster session. There were six poster sessions
in total, and each had something different to contribute. The poster sessions
were scheduled right before the first presentations started and were held at thesame time (http://www.nakasendoconference.org/program/). Most posters
were left on the walls throughout the day for interested conference-goers. For
the most part, however, the sessions either recounted experiences such as trips
abroad or reported on organizations and their current activities. One poster
session presenter introduced Elementary School Thematic Education Movement143

Brown & Botev(ESTEEM) (http://www.esteemjapan.com/English-index.htm) and explained
how it was helping elementary school teachers in her city develop effective
English lessons that motivate learners. Her poster was certainly a good promotion
for ESTEEM but offered no significant insight nor practical advice on how toimplement thematic English teaching into the elementary classroom. What it diddo, however, was give conference attendees the chance to become acquainted with
ESTEEM and hear a bit about what the program is doing to promote English
education at the elementary school level. Another small group of students fromWayo Women’s University’s Graduate School of Human Ecology, along with
their professor, presented in English the Japanese Food Guide Spinning Top( Japan’s equivalent of the Western food pyramid). While their poster was notparticularly related to language teaching, we were happy to see young Japanese
students using Nakasendo as a venue for their work and a professor pushing hisstudents to present in English. Overall, the poster sessions were interesting but
offered no notable research contributions to the EFL field. The greatest benefit ofthis time was the opportunity to socialize with the presenters and have a personal
conversation with them about their posters.
Following the poster sessions, the first round of presentations began. Becauseof the sheer number of presenters, nearly 30 poster and full presentations,the conference was organized into seven rounds of three presentations eachround throughout the day. As it was impossible for us to attend each and every
presentation, we will only review a few that we felt warranted a discussion.
Yaoko Matsuoka (International Christian University) led off the first roundof presentations. Her presentation, titled “Developing collaborative writing in
LMS Wiki” reviewed the use of wiki group writing projects in the classroom
and argued its effectiveness, explaining how it can promote critical thinking
along with academic writing skills. We were happy to see her acknowledging theimportance of critical thinking in academic writing and their inseparable link toone another. Her perspective was very intriguing, and we felt she offered valuable
insight for teachers of English writing in Japan. Matsuoka reported on how sheset students in small groups, assigning topics for them to create text together. She
used a wiki feature to track students’ writing footprint. She also explained that144

Sixth Annual Nakasendo Conference, OnCUE Journal, 7(2), pages 143-148

the above project is based on “socio-cultural theory and interaction hypothesisin that it facilitated collaborative writing by offering the environment where peercomments and more competent students’ written text served as ‘scaffolding’ toimprovement, and peer interaction was promoted.”
Following Matusoka’s presentation, Satchie Haga from Tamagawa University
introduced her attempt at integrating a semester-long peer review program tied toa writing assignment. Haga discussed how she utilized her university’s e-learning
system to track students’ progress throughout the review process. Haga also
acknowledged that while research has suggested that collectivist societies do notappreciate peer review, her study contradicted these previous findings. However,she did admit that to make peer review a success among Japanese students, it isnecessary to train them in how to criticize. She also gave some practical advice
on how to help students overcome their reservations of being overly critical ofanother classmate’s work. Overall, Haga had some great ideas for the writingclassroom backed up by sound research and her classroom experience.
The conference also featured EFL contributors from other parts of Asia, afirst for Nakasendo. One of them, Andrew Northern, who teaches at the Hong
Kong Polytechnic University, presented on useful methods of providing students
with feedback that is timely, intelligible and of high quality. His presentation,“Evaluating screen-capture technology as a tool for providing feedback on
academic writing: Student and instructor perspectives”, took the audiencethrough the steps necessary to supplement traditional written comments withvideo feedback on student writing. He introduced a project he piloted thatutilizes screen-capture feedback on an advanced academic writing course at hisinstitution. Screen-capture was used to show the editing changes and how andwhy he made them in students’ work. His presentation also included the prosand cons of free online screen-capture software, such as Jing and Cam Studio.
After his presentation, we felt determined to modernize our classrooms with thebenefits of twenty-first century technology.
Nakasendo 2013 also offered an opportunity to publishers, as they wereinvited to give presentations as well. Though we were concerned representatives
from the publishers would take advantage of the opportunity to simply promote145

Brown & Botev

their textbooks, we were pleasantly delighted to find this to not be the case. Rob
Peacock from Oxford University Press offered a mini-workshop to attendees
in which he discussed how to improve confidence and fluency in ESL learners
through maximization of time spent on speaking tasks in lessons. Peacock
exemplified this through the use of follow-up questions, in which he involved
the audience with by asking, “Where are you from? Is it far away?” and such.
He also touched on how students can use the means of social networking, suchas creating pages and groups on Facebook, and increase their English practice
opportunities. Peacock engaged the audience throughout his presentation byasking questions and moving among the audience, as well as using one of hiscolleagues as a conversation partner to demonstrate example exercises.
Like the poster sessions, there was a variety of presenters, each with something
different to say. Some were better than others, but generally the presentations
were professional and educational. However, we would have liked to see a bit
more presentations grounded in research and theory. While the practical side wasrefreshing from the typical high-tower, theory-based academic presentations towhich many of us have grown accustomed, the complete and utter lack of any
research in some of the presentations was somewhat shameful from an academic
standpoint. Nevertheless, the fact that both veterans and novices were given
equal opportunity to present their ideas was something we greatly appreciated.
Another notable though admittedly less scholastic part of the conference waslunch. Following the morning presentations, attendees were invited to enjoy anauthentic Indian curry lunch in Toyo University’s celebrated cafeteria—rated thetop university cafeteria in Tokyo. We were able to discuss topics and issues raisedin the morning presentations, as well as hear from others about their classes,
long-term projects and other educational matters. It was a valuable time that gave
all who attended the conference an opportunity to socialize with teachers fromaround the world.
As Nakasendo has only been hosting conferences for six years, it suffers its
share of growing pains, but because it is still rather new, perhaps organizers do
not screen presentations as strictly as they should. Some of the poster sessions
and presentations were of an embarrassingly low academic caliber. In addition,146

Sixth Annual Nakasendo Conference, OnCUE Journal, 7(2), pages 143-148

the way in which the conference was organized forced attendees to choose one
presentation over another. While this would not normally have been an issue,
the organizers did not provide abstracts of each presentation at the conference.
Though it was explained that abstracts were available on the Nakasendo 2013’s
Web site, that did little good for those of us actually at the conference. Therefore,
attendees had to make their choices based on presentation titles. As a result, wesometimes found ourselves part of a presentation we probably would have notattended had we been able to read its abstract. The conference also suffered froma couple of presenters who did not show, which led organizers to quickly react
and rush audiences from one room to another in order to assure both attendees
and presenters got the most out of the conference.
Despite Nakasendo 2013’s hiccups, the conference provided a pleasanteducational atmosphere. Everyone was of equal importance, and every
presentation was of equal importance to the conference. This equality wasmost likely due to the efforts of the conference coordinator assuring that allpresentations were the same in length and that no one speaker was designatedas keynote or plenary. It was obvious that organizers did their best to provide afirst-class experience. Publishers’ booths were set up in an easily accessible way,
and presentations started and ended in a timely manner. Furthermore, it wasvery encouraging to see students who had volunteered to help with Nakasendo
2013 accommodating attendees’ needs. Overall, teachers were able to expand
their professional networks and see how EFL teaching is done, not only in Japan,
but also in other corners of Asia. It was a pleasure to see EFL colleagues fromnear and far, dedicated to professional development at a grassroots level, sharing
ideas on how to nurture a better educational relationship between teachers andlearners. This year’s conference enjoyed one of its largest number of attendees andpresenters since its establishment six years ago. Without a doubt, the future ofNakasendo seems bright as it continues to pick up speed and grow in popularity.

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Authors’ bios
Jonathan David Brown at the time this review was written was part of the Facultyof Regional Development Studies at Toyo University where he was responsible
for the development of a new writing program in the University’s Language
Center. Jonathan’s research interests include L2 writing, contrastive rhetoric, andintercultural communication. brown@toyo.jp
Ivan Botev, M.Ed. (English Language and Methodology), is involved in the Global
Human Resources Development Program in Toyo University. He is also an adjunctprofessor in Ochanomizu University. He served as president of the JALT Omiya
Chapter in 2013. botev@toyo.jp
Received: December 31, 2013
Accepted: May 7, 2014148