Miloud Bouchefra
Sidi Bel Abbes University
Abstract
Since its emergence back to 2007, the Flipped Classroom became a buzz word that took the world of education by storm. However, as STEM associated disciplines made fair advances in the incorporation of this blended learning model especially at K12 level, language education still has quite a long way to go in order to catch up with the flow. Therefore, the current study is an endeavour to incorporate the Flipped Classroom into the writing class through adapting an eclectic writing instruction framework proposed by Bouchefra (2015). The analysis of students’ grades as well as group interviews proved the positive impact of the Flipped Classroom incorporation on students’ achievement, quality of their compositions as well as their perception of the subject. Still, the study also pinpoints a number of drawbacks that need to be taken into consideration by teachers willing to apply the proposed instructional method in the future.
Introduction
Writing is one of the hardest skills to teach and learn (Walters, 1987-MAthesis) as it requires simultaneous control over a number of subskills involved in the process of composition making it a tricky task even for native speakers (Nunan, 1999). The fact that composition is a process makes time one of the major hurdles that trouble teachers of this skill as it is necessary to take learners through all the different stages of the writing process and class time is simply too limited for that. This usually translates into sending students home to struggle alone with composition with no access to teacher or peers’ feedback and advice. One of the answers to that issue in particular could be found in the employment of the Flipped Classroom. Known for its expansion of learning environment beyond brick-and-mortar classroom boundaries, the Flipped Classroom moves lecturing and passive note taking outside the classroom to be carried by learners on their own and enables constant contact between teachers and learners and learners themselves. the Flipped Classroom must be embedded into a cogent pedagogical framework that ensures its compliance with effective teaching practices. Therefore, the current work incorporates the Flipped Classroom into writing instruction through adapting an eclectic instructional framework (figure 1) that was originally designed to ensure limiting time devoted to lecturing, guarantee enough time for practice, and integrate writing process and six traits as central and permanent facets in writing instruction.
Figure 1: Eclectic Writing Instruction Framework (Bouchefra, 2015, p. 99).
Theoretical Background
Flipped Classroom and ESL/EFL
Though the flipped classroom approach is drawing increased attention from educators worldwide, we observe that the vast majority of the conducted research is related to STEM associated fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) with a huge gap to be filled in TESL/TEFL. Still a number of pioneering studies have been conducted to investigate how Flipped Classroom can be best incorporated into ESL/EFL classroom. In a study that examined the impact of the Flipped Classroom on the writing of twelfth grade Emirati female students, Mireille (2014) concludes that the experimental group that studied using the flipped classroom had significantly higher scores and demonstrated a favourable attitude towards the approach. Similarly, Baranovic (2013) notes that the flipped classroom helped first year native and non-native students improve their writing abilities despite their initial low levels as they eventually could exceed university standards. Moreover, Li (2013) recommends the flipped classroom as a practical teaching approach after she observed that it helped individualize instruction, reduce note taking and lecturing time, and promote engagement, creativity, and active learning environment. Likewise, Webb et al. (2014) note that the use of the flipped classroom promotes creativity and higher order learning practices. Additionally, the flipped classroom has also been found effective in improving speaking skills (Wang and Zhang, 2013). One common feature about the studies (Sung, 2015; Webb et al., 2014) that investigated the incorporation of the flipped classroom in ESL/EFL classroom is that students tend to demonstrate initial resistance before getting acquainted to the new model of learning and embracing it.
Writing Instruction and ICTs
As instructors find themselves dealing with a generation of digital natives, incorporating ICTs in EFL has become a must rather than a choice. Out of the four skills of language, writing seems to be making a fair use of what technology world has to offer. A number of studies documented different uses of technologies in facilitating and improving writing instruction and learning. Still some technologies are more widely used than others are. One of the earliest tools adopted in this regard is word processing software. Though the technology itself is fairly basic, it is so useful that it is used by virtually everyone who uses a computer to write. Some features that make Word Processors ideal for ESL/EFL writing instruction classroom are the possibility to reformat and edit texts at any point, embedded thesauri, dictionaries, and spelling and grammar checkers, as well as the portability of the document that can be copied and sent via emails and other CMC tools. Another major tool in writing instruction is the blog, which represents a virtual platform where learners can publish their writing for an audience and receive feedback. A number of studies examined the effect of blogs on students’ writing and concluded that they reduce writing apprehension (Supyan et al.,2010), promote collaborative learning and peer instruction (Shah, 2008; Godwin-Jones, 2006), encourage feedback provision (Godwin-Jones, 2006), and develop students’ persuasion and argumentation skills (ibid.).
A similar tool to blogs is the wiki that is basically a virtual space where students present information about a particular topic (Sweeny, 2010). However, the wikis allow learners to collaborate on the same piece of writing as different individuals can all add, edit, and omit parts of the writing, the fact that promotes collaborative learning and constructive feedback provision (Ibid.). Additionally, the fact that the wiki is intended to be read by an audience hones students’ revision and editing skills as they are encouraged to conform to the standards of academic writing, pay close attention to grammar, spelling and punctuation, and avoid plagiarism (Klimova, 2011). Similarly, cloud computing is another technology that enables different individuals to work collaboratively on the same piece of writing or project without the need to be physically present at the same place. Meanwhile, social media has also been adopted for instructional purposes as Sweeny (2010) reports the use of Instant Messaging to turn in summaries of passages assigned by the teacher. Another study led by Shih (2011) investigating the impact of Web 2.0 technology on Taiwanese first year university students’ writing suggests that integrating Facebook in the teaching of English writing skills enhances cooperative learning and student-centered practices such as knowledge sharing and interaction in the target language and improves students’ motivation and interest in the subject.
Study Procedures
The current study was conducted with two groups of third year university students majoring in English language. The researcher taught Written Expression subject in the first semester using an eclectic instructional framework as suggested by Bouchefra (2015), which translates in three different phases, as demonstrated in table 1 below.
|
The phase |
Setting |
Procedures |
|
Phase One |
In-classroom |
|
|
Phase Two |
Outside classroom |
|
|
Phase Three |
In-classroom |
|
Table 1: Teaching Written Expression Subject Using Eclectic Instructional Framework.
During the first semester students tackled five essay types, namely descriptive essay, narrative essay, comparative essay, contrast essay, and definition essay. During the lecturing phase, the researcher defines the genre in question, goes through its different structural and organisational characteristics, and analyses an essay model. After checking students’ understanding through a number of comprehension questions, the researcher engages them in the prewriting stage of writing process, encourages them to decide on topics for their essays and brainstorm ideas. Once students have generated enough ideas and organized them, the researcher encourages them to start writing their first draft while circulating the classroom to check on different students, answer their enquiries, and provide feedback regarding what they have written. Given the limited time of in-class session that lasts for 90 minutes, the students are asked to finish the drafts at home before bringing them to the class in the next session. At the beginning of the third phase, the researcher checks class status and answers any enquiries students might have before encouraging them to exchange their essays with their peers, read their classmates’ essays, and provide feedback based on a checklist composed of the Six Traits criteria. Meanwhile, the teacher goes around the class to check the feedback that was being provided by students and draw their attention to aspects they might have skipped. After that, students are encouraged to edit their essays based on the feedback they received from their peers. Once students finish editing and polishing their essays, they hand them to the teacher for final grading.
Whereas for the second semester, the researcher introduced the Flipped Classroom approach to the instructional framework as demonstrated in table 2.
|
The phase |
Setting |
Procedures |
|
|
Phase One |
Outside classroom |
|
|
|
Phase Two |
In-classroom |
|
|
|
Phase Three |
Outside classroom |
|
|
|
Phase Four |
In-classroom |
|
|
Table 2: Teaching Written Expression Subject Using the Flipped Classroom.
The second semester covered five essay types, namely classification essay, argumentative essay, CV, cover letter, and business letter. The researcher followed the same steps as in the first semester but replacement of the in-class lecturing phase by a video-lesson that students view before coming to classroom. At the beginning of the second semester, the researcher informed the students about the adoption of the Flipped Classroom approach, explained how the approach works, provided them with the link to the LMS, explained how to use them, and took their emails so that he sends them notifications about the uploaded videos and receive any enquiries they might have. Then with every new essay type, the researcher prepared a video lesson that lasted between 14 and 17 minutes in which he provided a definition of the essay genre that students are about to tackle, detailed its different structural and organizational characteristics, and analysed a sample essay. In order to check students’ understanding, the researcher embedded between three and five comprehension questions at different stages of the videos. The LMS that the researcher employed enabled students to ask questions that can be either directed to the teacher or to group discussion. It should be pointed out that the LMS that the researcher used Scallable-Learning Project (as demonstrated in Figure 2 below) that enabled him to track students’ activities out of school, including the areas of the video-lesson that students found problematic. This aspect in particular was used to guide in-class remedial lesson.
Figure 2: Learning Management System used by Scalable-Learning Project.
Research Methodology
In order to investigate the impact of the introduction of the Flipped Classroom to the instruction of writing skills, the researcher used three research tools. First, a group interview was held with the students of each group, during which they were asked to respond and discuss two main questions: (1) “What are the aspect that you appreciate about the use of the Flipped Classroom in the teaching of writing skill?” and (2) “What are the aspects which you do not appreciate about the use of the Flipped Classroom in the teaching of writing skill?”. As he moderated the interaction and encouraged the students to elaborate more and justify their answers, the researcher took notes. Second, the compositions of the students were analysed to see how the introduction of the Flipped Classroom affected their writing in terms of conforming organization and structure of the studied genres as well as quality of ideas and employed language, as these were the main objectives of the subject. Third, the grades that the students got in each semester were compared to see how the introduction of the Flipped Classroom affected them.
Population
The sample population consisted of two groups of third year university students majoring in English language. Group A consisted of 28 students whereas group B consisted of 26 students.
Results
During the group interviews, students agreed on a number of points regarding the aspects they appreciated the most about the introduction of the Flipped Classroom, and the aspects they found problematic. For some students the use of technology on its own was a motivating aspect as they thought that video lessons and LMSs should be generalised to include other subjects. Students also seemed to agree that the main advantage of the Flipped Classroom is the use of the video-lesson that helped them understand the lecture better as they could watch the video as many times as they needed to, pause, and rewind whenever they needed. Additionally, there was a consensus among students regarding the usefulness of being able to contact the teacher outside the classroom and receive feedback regarding their enquiries. However, students also pointed out a number of aspects they found problematic. The main issue was internet access, as not all students had internet connection at home whereas others resided at the university’s dormitory which did not provide internet connection service. Secondly, some students had low ICT literacy and found the LMS a bit tricky to use as they faced some difficulties when subscribing or looking for the video lessons.
As for the students’ compositions analysis, the researcher noticed that after the introduction of the Flipped Classroom the essays’ overall structural and organisational forms conformed more to the instructions given during the lessons. Furthermore, the extra time devoted to feedback provision and in-class revision affected other aspects positively, especially the quality of ideas, adequacy of the language, and mechanics (grammar, spelling, punctuation). Meanwhile, this improvement regarding students’ writing was reflected positively on their grades, as group one’s final grades improved by SD = 0.9545, whereas the grades of group two improved by SD = 0.6646, as demonstrated in the table 3 below.
SD: Standard Deviation.
|
Group |
Semester One |
Semester Two |
Standard Deviation |
|
Group One |
12,38 |
13,73 |
0.9545 |
|
Group Two |
13,02 |
13,96 |
0.6646 |
Table 3: Students Performance Improvement under the Flipped Classroom Approach.
Discussion
The introduction of the Flipped Classroom approach affected students’ compositions positively as students produced better final drafts that conformed to the instructions given by the teacher and highlighted during the sample essay analysis. The extra time devoted to feedback provision in and outside the classroom also seemed to have benefited students as its positive effect was clear on their final grades. Additionally, having the lesson presented under a video format enabled the students to grasp the content better as they could rewind and watch the video as many times as they needed to. Despite the yielded positive results, future incorporation attempts of the Flipped Classroom should ensure a clear and well-illustrated training for learners on how to use the LMS and access to the learning content. Another issue that must not be ignored is students’ access to the internet, as the instructor should think of ways to enable all students to access the learning content equally. One way to alleviate the issue is through the use of a mobile phone friendly LMS, as most students possess smart phones connected to 3G or 4G networks that they can use them to access the video lesson. Meanwhile, the discussion forum was not used as much as the researcher hoped for, as all the students who had enquiries directed them to teacher. Therefore, future research should investigate better ways to encourage the learners to engage in discussions between themselves rather than resorting solely to contacting the teacher.
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