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INSTITUTE OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES

PhD PROGRAM IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION

PhD Thesis Defense

 

 ABSTRACT

 

Impact of Flipped Classroom Model on EFL Learners’ Grammar Achievement:

Not only Inversion, but also Integration

by

CEM BULUT

Date & Time: Thursday, June 13th 2018, 14.00

Place: Faculty of Education, Room 530

 

All interested are cordially invited.

 

Flipped classroom (FC) method has gained popularity in recent years, specifically in higher education, with the idea that it is possible to use the time spent in classrooms more effectively, by simply flipping the passive lecturing parts with the homework exercises. I.e., teachers have the opportunity to record the presentation phases of their classes with the help of technology and, deliver them online as a home study in order to use the time saved for the production phase and more interaction in the classroom. Accordingly, the present study aims to investigate whether using FC method is more effective than the traditional method in teaching grammar to EFL learners.  Other parts including reading, listening, speaking and writing activities are beyond the scope of this study.

An experimental research was conducted with the participants of two intact classes having A2 level English courses at the second grade (N=39 in total) in a vocational school in Kocaeli, Turkey. At the beginning of the second semester, prior to the treatment period, a grammar perception survey, adapted from Webb and Doman (2016), was given to the both groups in order to see their attitudes towards their own grammar knowledge. Then, a pre-test covering merely the grammar points in the first course book (A1 level), which had been completed in the first term, was administered. Immediately after the pre-test, the treatment period was started by delivering the grammar subject of each unit in the second course book (A2 level) in the form of video lectures over the learning management system (LMS) of the school before the classroom meetings with the experimental group. In this way, instead of lecturing on the grammar in the classroom, the exercises which would normally be assigned as homework were done under the guidance of the teacher.

The control group, in contrast, took the grammar parts of their courses in the classroom traditionally as well as doing their related homework at home. At the end of the 7 weeks of treatment process, a post-test which was composed of the grammar subjects covered throughout the treatment period, was administered to the groups. Next, the grammar perception survey used at the beginning of the study was carried out again to explore whether the students’ attitudes towards grammar changed or not. In addition to this, another survey adapted from Einfield (2013) was given to the experimental group for the purpose of examining their perceptions on FC method.

Results from the post-test indicated that the experimental group achieved significantly higher scores than the traditional group. In this regard, the factors that lie beneath this improvement are likely to be attributed to the teaching method, which is also supported by the answers given to the FC perception survey. I.e., the majority of the participants in the experimental group found the FC strategy considerably engaging and helpful for learning grammar.

In sum, the present study provides additional findings to the literature in the same vein with the previous studies on FC from a different perspective investigating ELT context in terms of grammar teaching.