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Volume 24 Issue 1 May 2017

Kansai To the World: Promoting
learner engagement about
international issues through astudent conference

on the student participants by examining
their feedback, and offer some advice andsuggestions for those interested in holding
similar events in their own contexts.

Sponsored by: JALT LD SIG Kansai Get Together

The Kansai To The World (K2W) student
conference, held in November 2016,
engaged local and international students
from Kansai area universities in discussions
about current globally related issues facing
Japan. Within this student-centered event,participants actively employed theircommunication skills, empathy, and crosscultural understanding. Through poster
presentations, discussion and reflection
activities, we saw students engage indiscussions about topics generated by theirpeers. While the focus was primarily on the
Kansai region, students addressed thechallenges of globalization in the areas ofeducation, tourism, technology, and theworkplace.

Anita Aden, Ann Flanagan, Yoshio Nakai,
Shuji Narita, Agnes Patko, Jennifer Teeter andKatherine ThorntonLearners of English and otherlanguages across Japan are regularly
faced with the same problem: a lackof opportunity to use the language they arelearning. This can influence their language
learning experiences in multiple ways
including never engaging in language
learning due to a lack of perceived need,struggling with low motivation, or
possessing low communicative proficiency
due to a lack of opportunity for interaction.
The social turn in language learning research,which has taken place over the last 20 years,
emphasizes the importance of interaction
with others, not just in terms of proficiency
gains made through language practice, but inthe effect that it can have on motivation,
engagement and learner autonomy.
Murphey (1996) has long advocated for the
power of peer interaction on motivation,with his concept of near peer role models(Murphey, 1996). More recently, Murray(2014) emphasised the importance of thesocial dimension in fostering autonomy.
University students in Japan may have few
opportunities to meet other learners outside
their immediate peer groups (classes, club
activities); as a result, they may have limited
chances to engage in discussion about thesocial issues that face Japan in the 21st
century.
The Kansai Get Together group of the
JALT Learner Development SIG, revived in
December 2015, decided to organise aforum for students from our institutions to
use English to engage in discussion of social
issues in the form of a student conference.
This paper will describe the event itself andhow it was organised, investigate the impact
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Literature Review
There is a history of student involvement inacademic conferences in Japan, but the
research in this area has tended to focus
more on students in supportive roles at
professional conferences, rather than as
presenters themselves at events organised
especially for students. In one study,
Matsuoka (2015) investigated the impact on
willingness to communicate and thelanguage anxiety of interns at a JALT
conference. In another, Taylor (2012) cited
numerous benefits for students who worked
as interns, including opportunities to use
English in a local environment compared toan expensive study abroad programme,
which increased student motivation andcontributed to developing students’intercultural competence.
Despite this minimal research conducted on
the impact on students as they take part inconferences as presenters, more student
conferences have taken place in Japan inrecent years. The Asia Community
Engagement (ACE) student conference hastaken place in the Kansai area since 2014. At
this conference, groups of participating
students are assigned a current problem in

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Volume 24 Issue 1 May 2017business in Japan and asked to develop
possible solutions. These solutions are thenpresented and discussed in English on the
day of the conference. The Japan
Association for Self-Access Learning(JASAL) has held three student events since
2013: the Student Involvement in SelfAccess Centers Conference, was organised
by students from Sugiyama Jogakuen
University in Nagoya in 2013 (Ssali, 2013); a
Self-Access Show and Tell event at
Okayama University in 2015 (Fujishima &Ronald, 2015); and the Engaging Students in
Self-Access Centres conference at Kanda
University of International Studies in Chiba
in 2016. In each of these JASAL events,
student users and student staff of self-accesscentres shared observations and talked
about their experiences and research at theirfacilities.
Though similar to ACE, which focused on
engaging students in problem-solving
activities, the student conference describedin this article differs from the previous
events. One distinct difference of the K2W
conference was the personalization, wherestudents developed their own ideas as they
prepared posters prior to the event.
Organising K2W
Discussions about the K2W event started in
April 2015; however, due to varying school
calendars
andprevious
research
engagements, the date of the event was
decided relatively late, in September. Oncethe date was finalized and the venue wasbooked, we created a to-do-list and allocatedtasks among the members.
Table 1. Tasks for conference planning
Create a call for posters handout (include
application method, deadline, notice of
acceptance etc.)
Decide the target group at each institution
Appeal to international students
Start advertising the event to students
Application deadline (get informal numbers
SPRING 2017of posters & students interested inattending)
Make an online registration form forparticipants (Google forms)
Site visit to OIC (Ritsumeikan University,
Osaka, Ibaraki Campus), decide what
equipment to reserve
Make a conference
website: https://k2w2016.wordpress.com
Make a conference booklet
Decide the order of presentations/ poster
sessions/ tasks that students will do at theevent
Decide the final format of the event
Divide the teacher responsibilities (wholeads which activity, etc)
Finalise the tasks
On the day:- arrive early to set up the conference roomand prepare for registration- set up the room, put up signs to help
participants find the room, set up therefreshment area, technology support, etc.
The K2W: Kansai to the World conference
held at Ritsumeikan University, Ibaraki
campus was organzied by Katherine
Thornton, Richard Silver, Agnes Patko,
Shuji Narita, Yoshio Nakai, Anita Aden, and
Ann Flanagan (with support from Jennifer
Teeter). Since students, both Japanese andinternational students were participatingfrom different universities, the event started
with Agnes Patko and Katherine Thornton
leading an introduction activity to encourage
students to get acquainted with eachother. Soon the room was buzzing withenergy, and laughter could be heard fromevery corner of the room.
The conference was divided into two poster
sessions. Poster Session 1 focused on thethemes of Tourism and Technology. The

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Volume 24 Issue 1 May 2017

participants rotated every 8 minutes to newposters, allowing them time to listen to all
the presenters. After presenters were
finished, students were given a 10-minutebreak to read the posters in more depth andget some refreshments. Next, students
paired up in a reflective discussion activity
to discuss the topics. Using colorful sticky
notes, they wrote their possible solutions orquestions for the presenter and stuck themon
thewhiteboardnear
theposters. Members of the LD SIG thengrouped the comments into categories. This
led to the next activity, a “Gallery Walk”,
where students walked around the room toread other students’ comments and further
stimulate follow up conversations. Oncestudents had read all the notes, they chose
one poster’s theme to talk about in small
groups. Following their discussion time, aself-chosen leader of the group gave a shortsummary of what was discussed with therest of the participants. After this activity,
students were given another short break aspresenter set up the second poster session.
The themes for this session were
“Education”
and“Workplace&
Employment”.
The second session proceeded more quickly
due to the students’ familiarity with theactivities and the increased level ofconfidence in sharing their thoughts andopinions. Following the second poster
summaries, students were given feedback
forms to fill out anonymously. The
conference received very positive feedback
about the variety of topics presented and thestyle of conference. Many students werekeen to participate in another event like thisagain.
To conclude the conference, presenterswere given certificates of achievement andthe afternoon event ended with a group
photo.
Students’ voices
Students filled in a seven-item questionnaire
about the event, which included
demographic data (see Appendix). We
considered using an online form; however,SPRING 2017

the idea was discarded as we anticipated thatsome students may not have a smartphoneand some might have restrictions on theirinternet usage.
Because we were notexpecting more than 30 participants, we
decided that using a paper-based survey andentering the answers into an online form
seemed manageable.
Throughout the event, the 20 participants
were actively engaged and seemed to enjoy
the various activities, reflected by the resultsof the survey. We received very positive
feedback. From the 18 respondents, 15 said
they were “extremely likely” to recommend
the event to a classmate, and 3 were “likely”
to recommend the event to a classmate.
Almost all participants rated the event as“excellent” or “very good.” They felt thatthe warm up activities helped to create afriendly atmosphere.
In their comments, many of themmentioned that they enjoyed discussing thevariety of topics and sharing opinions about
the issues in English with people from otheruniversities and international students. One
point that needed to be improved was thetime allocated for each activity. They wanted
to spend more time on their discussions andneeded more time to think. All in all,students felt the event was well organised
and each activity fostered communication.
They were happy to have participated in thisconference and many of them expressedinterest in participating and/or presenting at
a similar event in the future.
Reflections and Conclusion
Conference organizers reflected on the
success of this student-centered event inlight of reaching the target audience,achieving the conference aims andevaluating the outcome for future
events. In the preparation stage, emphasis
was put on adequately planning thecomponents for a half-day conference(Segar, 2010) and defining the tasks thateach contributing Kansai Get-Together
member would do in the three months
leading up to the November 2016conference. The prior conferencing-making

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Volume 24 Issue 1 May 2017

expertise of Katherine Thornton, Ann
Flanagan, Rich Silver, and Agnes Patko
added to the smooth process of creating
checklists, making fliers and commenting onor editing each other’s tasks. Ourcommunication was primarily done via email
and the conference files were accessible toall members on Google Drive. From thetasks listed on our conference planning
checklist, it was possible to stay focused oncompleting each item and then respond todetails that came up as the conference day
approached. Some of the challenges ofpreparing for this conference included thelimited time we had to prepare for it, finding
enough student presenters, the uncertaintyof the number of participants, and concerns
about participants’ understanding of thisconference’s style of activities. Feedback
from participants confirmed that our efforts
to make an engaging student-focused event
were worthwhile and that planning a second
K2W conference would be well received byparticipants in the future.

look forward to applying our knowledge
from the last conference, as we prepare forthe next student-centered conference.
K2W PHOTO GALLERY

Figure 2. Presenters at the K2W conference Nov 2016.

Figure 3. Participants and presenters at K2W Nov 2016.

Figure 1. Celebrating a great K2W Conference.

Photos and video taken during theconference by Shuji Narita reflected theactive participation and dynamic interactionsof participants with each other andconference organizers. These photos were
uploaded immediately following theconference website and the link was sent toall participants the following month, alongwith an online follow up survey made by
Ann Flanagan. Overall, we rated theconference a success, based on the pre- andpost-conference agenda, accomplishedthrough the dedication of the LD SIG
Kansai Get Together members! This year,
the K2W2: Kansai to the World 2 will takeplace on June 11th at Kyoto University. We
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Figure 4. Participants adding comments to presenters’ posters.

Figure 5. Participants adding comments to presenters’ posters.

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References
Fujishima, N., & Ronald, J. (2015, August 2).
Talking Points August 2015: JASAL Show &Tell @ Okayama University’s L-cafe.
Retrieved from http://ld-sig.org/talkingpoints-august-2015/
Matsuoka, R. (2015). Willingness tocommunicate: The effect of conference
participation on students L2 apprehension.
In S. Horiguchi, Y. Imoto, & G.S. Poole,(Eds.). Foreign Language Education in Japan:
Exploring Qualitative Approaches. (pp. 133 –
146). Boston: Sense Publishers
Murphey, T. (l996). Near peer role models.
Teachers Talking to Teachers 4(3), 21-22.
Murray, G. (2014). Exploring the social
dimensions of autonomy in language learning.
In G. Murray (Ed.), Social dimensions ofautonomy in language learning (pp. 3-11).
Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave.
Segar, A. (2010). Pre-conference preparation.
Conferences that work: Creating events that people
love. Marlboro, VT: Booklocker, Inc.
Ssali, V. (2013) (Ed.) Student involvement in selfaccess centers conference reports. Of the students, forthe students. Retrieved fromhttps://jasalorg.files.wordpress.com/2013/1
0/sisac-conference-reports.pdf
Taylor, C. (2012). Student experiences on ashort internship program. Bulletin of Toyo
Gakuen University 20, 129-147. Retrieved fromhttp://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/110008915171/en

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K2W: Kansai to the world
Useful links:
Kansai to the World website:
https://k2wconference.wordpress.com
Kansai get-togethers are open to language
instructors to share together ideas and enjoy
discussing current topics and trends
happening in education in Japan.
http://ld-sig.org/get-togethers/kansai-gettogethers/
Facebook :https://www.facebook.com/groups/1265188541
84011/

Where:When:

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Kyoto University
June 11th (Sunday)

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Appendix: (not the original form)
K2W Conference Feedback Survey
Dear Participants,
Thank you very much for participating in the Kansai to the World Conference.
We appreciate all your hard work for making this a successful event. Your feedback is very
important to us. Please fill out the form below.
Circle:

Male

Year:

1 YearFemalest

2 Year 3 Year 4 Year Graduate
nd

rd

th

Exchange
Student

Student

1. How likely would you recommend this event to a classmate?
2.
Overall, how would you rate the quality of the conference?
• Excellent• Very Good• Fairly Good
• Mildly Good
• Not good at all
3.
4.
5.

What did you like about the event?
What did you dislike about the event?
How organized was the event?
• Extremely organized• Very Organized• Somewhat Organized• Slightly Organized• Not at all Organized

6. Were the following activities helpful in encouraging communication among participants?
Extremely
Very
Somewhat
Slightly Not at all
Icebreaking Activities
Poster and Discussion Session #1
Poster and Discussion Session #2

7. Please write any additional comments or feedback that you would like to give us.
Thank you very much for participating in the Kansai to the World Conference.
We greatly appreciate your feedback. It will be very helpful when we plan next year’s event.
The K2W Conference Organizers

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