Stimulus business writing: Using case studies and reports in a cross-cultural Virtual Exchange.

We evaluate the use of a Virtual Exchange (VE) writing task, Stimulus Writing, which we assigned to groups of UK and Finnish business students. There were two learner cohorts in the study: one in the UK (mainly Chinese students), the other in Finland (mainly Finns). The Finnish students wrote authentic case studies about Nordic businesses, while the students in the UK adopted our Stimulus Writing approach to write a report based on a case study given to them by the Finnish students. In Smith & Keng (2017) we reported on the experiences of the Finnish students in the collaboration. In this study, we examine the perceptions of the UK-based Chinese students. They found the approach motivating, and believed that through it their academic English skills improved, as did their understanding of business and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]