Teaching speaking skills through flipped classroom model: EFL students' autonomy, willingness to communicate, and anxiety

Abstract

The effects of teaching speaking skills through the Flipped Classroom Model on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students' autonomy, willingness to communicate, and anxiety while speaking English are examined in this study. With a quasi-experimental design, one control group (n = 27) and one experimental group (n = 28) were created for the quantitative phase of the study. The participants were pre-tested at the beginning of the term with three scales, including learner autonomy, willingness to communicate, and L2 speaking anxiety. After ten weeks of treatment in the experimental group, both groups were post-tested at the end of the term. In the qualitative phase, the students' ideas about their experience with flipped learning were gathered with four open-ended interview questions at the end of the intervention. Quantitative data were analyzed with SPSS 21.00. Paired sample t-tests and independent sample t-tests were run to test the effectiveness of the intervention. Qualitative data were analyzed manually through thematic analysis. The results of this study indicated that if implemented well in L2 speaking classes, the Flipped Classroom Model could significantly increase EFL students' autonomous learning and willingness to communicate. Moreover, it could considerably lower EFL students' speaking anxiety. Compared to the traditional classroom model, flipped learning provides various advantages to English language learners, especially those who aim to develop their speaking skills. Therefore, this model could be implemented in EFL-speaking classes to increase students' exposure to English both in and out of the classroom.