The Effect of Flipped Language Teaching on EFL Learners’ Text Comprehension: Learners’ English Proficiency Level in Focus

Subject Areas : All areas of language and translation

Shohreh Farsi ¹ (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of ELT, Ahar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahar, Iran)
Masoud Zoghi ² (Assistant Professor of TESL, Department of ELT, Ahar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahar, Iran)
Hanieh Davatgari Asl ³ (Assistant Professor of TEFL, Department of ELT, Ahar Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ahar, Iran)

Received: 2021-01-13 Accepted : 2021-01-13 Published : 2020-10-01

Keywords: flipped classroom, proficiency level, Flipped techniques, Text comprehension,

Abstract :

The current pretest-posttest quasi-experimental study sought, firstly, to examine the effect of employing flipped language teaching techniques on EFL learners' text comprehension and, secondly, to explore whether there was any significant interaction between the flipped classroom approach and EFL learners’ proficiency level. To this end, 65 male and female EFL learners were conveniently selected and their English proficiency level was determined based on the results of a TOEFL PBT. Having been divided into two experimental (one intermediate and one upper intermediate) and two control (one intermediate and one upper intermediate) groups, the participants were pretested in terms of reading comprehension at the beginning of the study. Subsequently, during a 14-week course of reading comprehension, the learners of the experimental group received flipped language instruction, whereas the control group’s learners were taught being exposed to conventional instruction. To investigate any changes in the learners’ per- formance as a result of the study course, their reading comprehension ability was gauged at the conclu- sion of the study course administering a posttest parallel to the pretest. The results indicated that the learners in the flipped classrooms outperformed their counterparts in the control group in terms of text comprehension, regardless of their English proficiency level. The findings of the study may urge EFL teachers to adopt a flipped classroom approach in order to enhance EFL learners’ reading comprehension skill.

References:

Abaeian, H. and L. Samadi (2016). "The effect of flipped classroom on Iranian EFL learners’ L2 reading comprehension: Focusing on different proficiency levels." Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research 3(6): 295-304.

Aronson, N., et al. (2013). "Flipped learning in higher education." Estados Unidos: Pearson. Recuperado de http://www. flippedlearning. org/cms/lib07/VA01923112/Centricity/D omain/41/HigherEdWhitePaper% 20FINAL. pdf.

Broukal, M. (2002). In-a-flash: Reading for the TOEFL Test, Peterson's.

Demetry, C. (2010). Work in progress—An innovation merging “classroom flip” and team-based learning. 2010 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), IEEE.

Goh, P. S. C. (2012). "The Malaysian Teacher Standards: a look at the challenges and implications for teacher educators." Educational Research for Policy and Practice 11(2): 73-87.

Greitzer, F. L. (2002). A cognitive approach to student-centered e-learning. proceedings of the human factors and ergonomics society annual meeting, SAGE Publications Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA.

Gunning, T. G. (1998). Assessing and Correcting Reading and Writing Difficulties, ERIC.

Kakande, I., et al. (2011). "A review of surgical capacity and surgical education programmes in the COSECSA region." East and Central African Journal of Surgery 16(3): 6-34.

Lage, M. J., et al. (2000). "Inverting the classroom: A gateway to creating an inclusive learning environment." The Journal of Economic Education 31(1): 30-43.

Muldrow, K. (2013). "A new approach to language instruction: Flipping the classroom." The Language Educator 11: 28-31.

Musallam, R. and R. Musallam (2010). "The effects of screencasting as a multimedia pre-training tool to manage the intrinsic load of chemical equilibrium instruction for advanced high school chemistry students." University of San Francisco, San Francisco.

Soltanpour, F. and M. Valizadeh (2018). "A Flipped Writing Classroom: Effects on EFL Learners’ Argumentative Essays." Advances in Language and Literary Studies 9(1): 5-13.

Sparks, R. J. (2013). "Flipping the Classroom: An Empirical Study Examining Student Learning." Journal of Learning in Higher Education 9(2): 65-70.