Using MS Teams in the EAP Classroom: A collaborative, task-based approach for student generated phrasebanks at the Foundation Level.
This study combines a task-based approach with a modern tool (MS Teams) to appeal to generation Z learners in improving their academic writing. The online Manchester Academic Phrasebank is a popular resource with EAP teachers and research demonstrates that it can help students to effectively use academic phrases in improving their academic writing (Davis and Morley, 2018). However, conversations with our Foundation students revealed that many find this phrasebank overwhelming and difficult to use. Therefore, this action research project empowered students to generate their own phrasebanks focusing specifically on their needs as pre-undergraduate writers. Drawing upon the lexical approach (Lewis, 1993) and following a task-based approach, our study helped students to recognise and actively use appropriate language for academic writing using MS Teams collaborative documents. Our paper provides a practical insight into how teachers can use collaborative documents to promote student engagement, and sensitivity to linguistic appropriateness.
References
Davis, M., & Morley, J. (2018). Facilitating learning about academic phraseology: teaching activities for student writers. Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education ISSN, 667X.
Lewis, M. (1993). The Lexical Approach: The State of ESL and a Way Forward. Language Hove: Teaching Publications.
Linguistics and Knowledge about Language in Education 