Facilitating Aural-oral skills of Engineering Students through the Flipped Classroom

Abstract

Higher education in India that remained traditional for relatively long time is now shifting towards more effective, active, flexible and student-centered teaching-learning process. One such novel pedagogical model that alleviates the restrictions of traditional lecturing method is the Flipped classroom. Recently the flipped classroom model has been recommended to scaffold this paradigm shift in higher education. A lot of researchers/teachers consider the traditional lecture method of teaching less effective compared to active learning methods. Nevertheless, research on the effectiveness of the flipped classroom in higher education is at a nascent. Very few studies have attempted to investigate students’ perceptions of learning through the flipped classroom method. This research aimed at developing the aural-oral skills of engineering students through the flipped classroom method and to examine their learning experience of the designed OER (audio/video resources) as a learning tool. For the purpose of the study, 60 I year engineering students of MJCET,Hyderabad, India have been selected as a study group last year. Three components were taken into consideration to evaluate the influence of the flipped classroom model on students’ learning experiences. 1) Effectiveness of the designed Open Education Resource in developing learners' listening and speaking skills and in minimizing errors in spoken English 2) the student’s attitude and general perception of learning through this innovative flipped classroom model. 3) the student’s experience of using audio/video lectures as a learning tool.

The study used two data collection methods: 1. The aural-oral skills test (pre-test and post-test in listening and speaking skills)

1. The questionnaire had two sections with 30 items in total. Section-1 had questions on learners’ perceptions/ experiences of the flipped classroom and section-2 had questions on evaluation of students’ learning experiences from audio/video resources and through the designed OER. The pre-tests were conducted before the participants underwent the designed course while the post tests were administered after the completion of the course. The post-test scores were then compared with the pre-test scores to measure the difference between them. However, the questionnaire was administered to the participants of the study after the completion of the course in Sept.2018. The study documented and analysed the data collected from the pre and post listening and speaking tests, as well as from the questionnaire.

The key findings and the data analysis of the study revealed that there was a noticeable difference between the scores of  pre-listening and post-listening tests. The average score of correct answers increased significantly whereas the average score of wrong answers decreased. From the comparison table, it was evident that nearly 90 per cent of the students were found to be ‘excellent’ in improving their Listening Skill (see table-1). While the table -2 provided evidence for significant increase in students’ speaking skills. The average of good and satisfactory percentages increased drastically and the average of not satisfactory % declined. The result eventually proves the study's viewpoint by presenting higher values towards the effectiveness of the designed flipped classroom activity and the chosen OER for developing the targeted skills.

To conclude, the finding of the study (differences between the tests scores) reveal that students’ aural-oral skills can be developed when these skills are supported and taught in tandem through the flipped classroom method. Thus, the flipped classroom is a win-win proposition model that can address various challenges associated with traditional method of lecturing and facilitate collaborative and interactive learning practices. The most important strategy of Flipped classroom method is utilizing the classroom time for more engaged and effective learning of skills such as application, analysis etc. (Higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy-Krathwohl, 2002).

Keywords: The Flipped Classroom, Aural-Oral skills, OER, ESL, EFL.