A proposed flipped classroom method: Using online collaboration to enhance students' out-of-class oral academic English learning

Recently, the flipped classroom approach (FCA) is slowly reshaping the academic English language learning (ELL) classroom in Asia. Much emphasis and research has been focussed on the "in-class" synchronous/collaborative learning aspect of the FCA, thus yielding positive results. However, the "out-of-class" asynchronous learning aspect of the FCA has received less attention and some problems occur, such as minimal to no peer collaboration or student accountability while watching the prescribed out-of-class video lessons. Therefore, to address these issues, this study examines the impact of creating a more synchronous/collaborative online component to the out-of-class aspect the FCA. Using the latest online technology innovations, a newly proposed flipped class (PFC) was created and then compared to a regular flipped class (RFC), and a traditional class (TC) over twelve weeks. Fifty-four undergraduate business students from a private university in Northern Taiwan participated in the study. Mock IELTS oral pre/post-tests were given to all participants in each ELL class to measure which teaching approach is more effective. The results show the PFC significantly improved overall on average, out-preforming both RFC and TC, and surprisingly, the TC significantly preformed better than the RFC; thus supports creating a more collaborative ELL environment during the out-of-class course content instruction component of a FCA, which enhances overall oral ELL.