EFFECTS OF AN ENGLISH INSTRUCTION USING THE FLIPPED LEARNING APPROACH ON ENGLISH ORAL COMMUNICATION ABILITY AND MOTIVATION IN ENGLISH LEARNING OF UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of an English instruction using flipped learning approach on upper secondary school students’ English oral communication ability, motivation in English learning, and opinions toward the English instruction using flipped learning approach. The participants were 48 twelfth-grade students who were studying in the second semester of the academic year 2014 in one upper secondary public school in Bangkok, Thailand. They had different English ability levels. During the eight-week instruction, the class followed four stages of flipped learning approach, namely experiential engagement, concept exploration, meaning making, and demonstration and application. The research instruments consisted of the speaking tasks, the motivation in English learning questionnaire, semi-structured interviews. The speaking scores obtained from speaking tasks were analyzed by using one-way repeated measure ANOVA was employed to compare within-subjects experimental group and Pos Hoc Tests using the Bonferroni correction was used to examine where the differences occurred between speaking tasks. Descriptive statistics and paired-sample t-test were used to compare the change in students’ motivation in English learning. In addition, the opinions of the participants were analyzed by using content analysis. The results revealed that participants’ English oral communication ability improved significantly and participants’ motivation in English learning were higher than before experiencing in the English instruction using flipped learning approach. The participants also mentioned that the instruction created engaging and active learning environment, provided more opportunities for learning and practicing inside and outside classroom, enhancing learner autonomy, and helping participants learn new content and vocabulary were the advantages of this instruction. The findings also suggest that flipped learning approach can be implemented to enhance English oral communication ability of upper secondary school students. In addition, the effects of flipped learning approach on other language skills including reading, writing, and listening skills should be explored in future research.