Abstract
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of utilizing ‘Flipgrid,’ a PC and mobile device video recording and social media application, as a means of practice in an English communication class. The present small-scale study was conducted at a Japanese national university in a first-year ESL classroom. The practical implications of this study inform on innovative ways to improve communicative English engagement in higher learning education. In this case, student presentation videos and online video discussion tasks were recorded using the Flipgrid application on student smartphones. The data collection methods consisted of teacher observations, video data and student responses recorded via a questionnaire. For the researchers, taking these first steps impacts broader language and technology research in the future.
Highlights
The Japanese Ministry of Education faces increasing challenges with regard to English learning and teaching, especially with one of the main reforms pointing towards speaking proficiency (Steele & Zhang, 2016)
Test relationships with new co-investigators or new community/industry partners.” (2016, pp. 112-113). This small-scale study’s aim is to evaluate a technological application to assist language learners engaging with second language production on such an application the first time, and if successful, Flipgrid will be implemented as part of a broader program involving creating language courses online with speaking components
Were the Flipgrid assignments successfully completed by the students, but the pilot has proven that such a class is possible to be done only using student smartphones
Summary
The Japanese Ministry of Education faces increasing challenges with regard to English learning and teaching, especially with one of the main reforms pointing towards speaking proficiency (Steele & Zhang, 2016) This has led to a new trend in language learning and teaching methodology in Japan to redirect English education towards a more communicative development and learning process (Wilkinson, 2015). In technology-based procedures, a specific framework is required to integrate technology as a tool to aid in learning (Townsend & Cronin, 2017) In this case, language activities were prepared based on science topics using National Geographic readers; all that was needed was a tool to record ‘speaking’ videos and to share them on a social networking platform. In a broader learning context the use of a rubric to allow the teacher to provide effective feedback was trialed, and our findings show that further research is needed to understand the full potential of a video comment function for giving and receiving effective feedback
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