USING APPS TO BRAINSTORM FOR AND OUTLINE ESSAYS: A STUDY IN HOW MULTIMODALITY CAN INCREASE MOTIVATION AND ENHANCE LEARNING FOR WRITING STUDENTS IN AN ENGLISH COMPOSITION CLASSROOM

This study examined whether using apps to do multimodal prewriting tasks in the English composition classroom increased student motivation and learning. The study of 73 English Composition students taking an English II composition course at Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates followed a mixed-method, pre-intervention/post-intervention research design. Participants were asked to fill out questionnaires and take part in focus group interviews that asked about motivation and perceived usefulness of doing prewriting tasks: first following traditional prewriting assignments on word processors; and second following the intervention of two multimodal prewriting activities using apps. The two prewriting activities were 1) brainstorming and taking notes, and 2) outlining. Students were given a choice of apps, which lent themselves to brainstorming and outlining. The most popular apps were Prezi for brainstorming and taking notes, and Books Author for outlining. Using apps to do multimodal prewriting tasks may increase motivation as participants responded that they enjoyed doing the multimodal projects and found them useful for learning English and organizing their ideas for essays. Participants also reported that presenting multimodal prewriting tasks is useful for sharing ideas and learning from classmates.