Abstract

Business English writing is a compulsory skill to be mastered by Business English major students but there is little progress in acquiring writing skills due to unattractive and ineffective teaching methods. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of using the blended learning mode of task collaborative learning in improving Business English writing skills of students in China. The sample of the study consisted of 80 second year Chinese Business English students from Guangdong Polytechnic Science and Technology; two business English lecturers also participated in this study. All the students were of the same age group with similar results in their first-year English Language examination. Both the Experimental Group and Control groups had 40 students each and they were chosen as intact-groups. The Experimental Group was taught using the blended learning mode of task collaborative learning and the Control Group was taught using the conventional method over a period of eight weeks. The quantitative data were analyzed using the SPSS Program for Windows Version 25, in which ANCOVA test were applied for the inferential statistics. The findings from the quantitative data analyses indicated that the Experimental Group outperformed the Control Group in their overall scores in writing, focusing on topic, supporting details, coherence and cohesion, grammar and vocabulary. Also, students improved their writing skills through collaborative leaning. As such, this study has crucial pedagogical implications as it suggests that the blended learning mode of task collaborative learning can be used as an alternative method in China to improve students’ Business English writing skills.

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