Flipped Classroom in the English Literature Lesson

Abstract

This paper presents a flipped classroom experience for the “English Narrative” subject. The teaching of literature usually involves a traditional approach through which the teacher delivers some theoretical content about authors, their work, and the cultural context in which they developed their literary production. As a result of this method, the class time devoted to the critical analysis of those texts may be considerably reduced due to an excess of theory. In contrast, the flipped classroom methodology allows students to prepare part of the content at home after watching an educational video or presentation provided by their teacher, and the class time is used to assess the selected texts in a more effective way. This proposal describes the procedure employed for a flipped lesson based on The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde. A group of 25 Spanish students were involved. They currently take the third year of the Degree of Modern Languages at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The participants have learned about Wilde’s novel and his ideas about art and beauty outside the classroom. Thus the time spent in class has been mainly dedicated to the analysis and critical discussion of said novel. The evaluation was conducted through 9 open questions. The answers have shown the preference for applying the flipped methodology rather than focusing on a more conventional approach to teaching literature.