The Effectiveness of Flipped Classroom Approach in Improving Writing Skills of First Year Undergraduates of University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Language practitioners, educators and researchers study on various teaching practices and simultaneously propose new methods to bring out the most productive and effective teaching practices to address the changing conditions of language needs of the learners. Nonetheless, literature claims that adult ESL learners lack English writing skills in required contexts. Hence, the present study is an attempt to address this issue by investigating (1) the effectiveness of the flipped classroom (FC) approach in improving writing skills of ESL learners (2) learners' perceptions towards integrating the FC approach and (3) challenges faced by lecturers using the FC approach. The ESL tertiary education institution was chosen as the research context and the study comprised a sample of stratified-randomly selected 120 firstyear undergraduates of the University of Kelaniya, whose proficiency was at the elementary level. The sample comprised of four groups; two control and two experimental groups, where traditional teaching and flipped based teaching was applied respectively. The data were collected utilizing a mixed method research paradigm including a pre-test / post-test design, an attitudinal questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Accordingly, a Paired Samples T-test was used to determine the statistical significance of the undergraduates' test scores. Thus, a thematic analysis was conducted to analyze the open ended questionnaire items and the semi structured interviews. The findings reported that the mean scores of the post-test marks of experimental groups have surpassed the ones of the control group. As such, it points towards the effectiveness of the FC approach in improving writing skills of learners. The questionnaire analysis on undergraduates' perceptions towards this approach revealed their satisfaction whereas a few challenges were identified based on the lecturers' responses at the semi structured interviews. Conclusively, the researcher recommends ESL practitioners integrate the FC approach as it improves learners' writing skills.